Entry #2 01/27/2015

Gunmen attack Corinthia Hotel in Libya

Jan 27th, 2015
By: Johnny Yu
CNN News

At lease 10 people including 2 attackers were killed, and six injured on Tuesday in a car bomb explosion and gun attack against the luxurious Corinthia Hotel in central Tripoli. Five people -- one American, one French citizen, and three people from Tajikistan -- were killed during the attack. Five Libyans were also killed. The Libyan branch of ISIS took responsibility for the attack, and released photos of the two gunmen -- Abu Ibraheen Al-Tunsi and Abu Sulaiman Al-Sudani. Their names suggests respectively that the men were of Tunisian and Sudanese origin. Essam al-Nass, a spokeman for a security division of the Ministry of Interior in Tripoli, said it appears that the attackers were Libyans. The FBI is expected to investigate into the incident, two U.S. officials said to CNN. A State Department official confirmed the death of one U.S. citizen, but would not provide any other information. The French Foreign Ministry also announced the death of one French citizen. An online group that supports ISIS said the attack was in the name of Abu Anas al-Libi, who was an alleged al Qaeda operative accused of involvement in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa. A spokesman for the Corinthia Group in Malta said they are trying to take possession of the hotel in order to assess the damage, but the Libyan security forces are not yet allowing that to happen.


My Opinions & Thoughts

It is understandable that ISIS wanted to take revenge on what the U.S. government did to al-Libi, who was one of them and recently passed away in a U.S. hospital. But they don't have to do everything in a violent way. Because the people they are killed have absolutely nothing to do with the U.S. government, they were just normal citizen who happened to be in the hotel at that time. Also, I think the Libya government should act more serious about the ISIS branch in Libya. We simply can't afford more deaths of innocent citizens caused by the ISIS. If we don't act seriously, one day they will get out of our hands and do harmful things more than just killing people.