[FOXNEWS] A deadly attack on a popular Ivory Coast beach resort Sunday that killed at least 16 most likely targeted a U.S. delegation led by the assistant commerce secretary, who was visiting the country, a diplomatic source in the region told Fox News.| Now this makes sense. Qaeda hard boys hitting a beach in subsaharan Africa doesn't make sense. But if a U.S. delegation is going to be there? Major score... |
Assistant Secretary of Commerce Marcus Jadotte was leading a group of Americans in Grand-Bassam, including college recruiters from the University of Florida. U.S. embassy officials from the capital city of Abidjan were also included in the group, according to the source. The delegation was supposed to arrive at the scene of the attack, Etoile du Sud, a hotel popular with Westerners. The delegation had not yet made it to the hotel when the attack occurred.
A jihadist group called Ansar Dine, or "defenders of the faith," linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was suspected of the attack, according to the source.Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb later grabbed credit for the attack, according to a Jihad monitoring website cited by the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
The US Embassy in Ivory Coast instructed all Americans to "shelter in place."
The U.S. ambassador to the Ivory Coast was not in the country at the time of the attack having left to attend a conference in Washington led by Secretary of State John F.
I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
But the deadly attack did leave 14 civilians and two special forces soldiers dead, as well as all six attackers, President Alassane Ouattara
...the current president-for-life of Ivory Coast. He actually beat his predecessor in an election before having to eject him from the presidential palazzo....
said, according to Rooters.
The attackers, who were "heavily armed and wearing balaclavas, fired at guests at the Etoile du Sud, a large hotel which was full of expats in the current heatwave," a witness told AFP.
Marcel Guy said he saw at least four gunnies with Kalashnikov rifles on the beach. He said one approached two children, and spoke in Arabic. One child knelt and prayed, the other child was rubbed out.
| Rat bastards. Hunt them down. |
Jacques Able, who identified himself as the owner of Etoile du Sud said one person had been killed at the hotel. A receptionist at Etoile du Sud hotel said the attacks happened on the beach.
"We don't know where they came from, and we don't know where they've gone," he said of the gunnies.
| It gets more interesting, according to The Times of Israel: |
| Who did the other three dead miscreants belong to? |
“By the grace of Allah and His granting of success, three heroes from the knights of Qaedat al-Jihad in the Islamic Maghreb were able to storm the tourist resort ‘Grand Bassam,’ situated east of the city of Abidjan, in Ivory Coast,” the SITE Intelligence Group quoted AQIM as saying.