Shootings at U.S. Navy offices could have been committed by ISIS follower

Attacks using weapons have occurred in succession at multiple parts of the world, including U.S. Navy offices that came under shooting attacks as "domestic terrorism" committed by a man from the Middle East, and a Egyptian battleship that was under a missile strike by ISIS, the Islamic terrorist group.

Shooting attacks at two places namely the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Thursday morning left four Marines killed, and three others injured. Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, who was killed while being chased by police, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was originally born in Kuwait and is a resident of Hixson, near the site.

The attacks are reportedly not associated with external Islamic militia groups such as ISIS or Al Qaeda, but there is a chance that it was spontaneous terror attacks committed by someone who followed ISIS. The suspect unloaded shots en masse at Marines who were on duty at the Navy recruiting center at 10:45 a.m. on the day, and drove to the Navy veterans’ center, some 11 kilometers from the site of the first attack, and exchanged fires with police before being killed.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian battleship exchanged fires with an armed vessel that is believed to be ISIS-affiliated, while the former was in patrol mission in the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday morning, got under a missile attack and went into flames, according to local media including the Cairo Post.

The Egyptian battleship spotted an armed vessel at waters some 3 kilometers from the border region between the Gaza Strip in Palestine, and chased after the latter. While they were exchanging fires, a massive explosion occurred at the Egyptian battleship, and white and dark smoke soared into the sky. Sailors on the battleship were rescued by other naval vessels according to the Egyptian authorities. After the exchange of fires, ISIS said, “Our Jihadist members attacked a military vessel with a missile,” and uploaded images of a flying missile and photos of the military vessel in flames through SNS, the terrorism watchdog SITE reported.

kyle@donga.com