Tunisia’s Interior Ministry said 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of military explosives were used in the attack on Tuesday, adding that either a backpack or a belt containing explosives was used.
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The statement says the “tyrants of Tunis will not have peace and we will not rest until the law of God governs in Tunis”. The attack killed 13 people in total.
Tunisian authorities are yet to issue information regarding how Wednesday’s bomb attack on presidential guards was executed, amid unconfirmed reports that a suicide bomber could have detonated a bomb near the bus. The opposition Ennahda Party, Tunisia’s moderate Islamists, has drawn a link between poverty and terrorism.
Tunisia has largely avoided the turmoil and violence that swept the region in recent years and is often described as the sole success of the Arab Spring uprisings. But the transition has been marred by attacks by extremist Islamist groups, including two this year that killed more than 60 people at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis and at a resort hotel in Sousse, about 87 miles south of Tunis.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack in central Tunis. “Just as the driver started to head off, the explosion occurred”.
Nonetheless, when asked about the possibility of planning and executing such an attack, including the possibility of a suicide bomber getting close to such a bus, Al-Warefli said: “It would be very, very easy”.
Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid warned that his government would strictly enforce a curfew and anti-terrorism measures after 12 presidential guards were killed in a bombing.
The transport ministry announced following the blast that security would be reinforced in the country’s ports and only passengers would be allowed to enter Tunis’s worldwide airport. “I am not scared – we are courageous people – but people are sad”, she said.
Troops fanned out around the capital and the president declared a month-long state of emergency after Tuesday’s attack.
More than 3,000 Tunisians are now fighting for Islamic State or other militant groups in Iraq, Syria and neighboring Libya. It is also building a security wall along the border with lawless Libya to try to stop militants crossing over into its territory.
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