The country imposed a 30-day nationwide state of emergency after the attack.
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Islamic State claimed both attacks, however there has been no immediate claim for tonights blast. The earlier attacks – at the Mediterranean resort of Sousse and the National Bardo Museum – claimed 60 lives, all but one of them foreign tourists in a country where tourism plays a substantial role in the economy. In a statement Wednesday, Madani expressed his solidarity with Tunisia and said such acts of terrorism are seeking to alter the country’s “moderation and tolerance-driven model of society”. The Confederation Cup is Africa’s second biggest club competition behind the Champions League.
Officials said it was not immediately clear what kind of explosive had been used to rip through the bus as guards were boarding to be driven to the presidential palace for duty.
It condemned what it referred to as a “terrorist attack” against the Tunisian Presidential Guard bus, and which it said had left at least 12 people dead.
The incidents exposed the nation’s vulnerability to terror attacks, despite the relative political stability it has enjoyed since a popular uprising unseated longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Law and order in Libya has collapsed as two rival governments, allied militias and groups including Islamic State vie for influence.
Seven women were recently detained for engaging in pro-IS propaganda, while 20 people were arrested on suspicion of planning attacks on hotels and security facilities.
In a statement, Mr Essebsi, who was not near the site of the explosion, called the blast a “cowardly terrorist attack”.
The National Security Council of Tunisia also belatedly approved the release of money in a counterterrorism fund that would finance relief projects in the most disadvantaged regions of the country, which is wedged between Libya to the east and Algeria on the west.
A bank employee working nearby reported hearing a large explosion and seeing the bus on fire.
It was the first time that Tunisian security forces have been targeted in such a way in the capital, though dozens have been killed since 2012 in battles with militants in the Mount Chaambi area on the border with Algeria.
Thousands of Tunisians have traveled to neighboring Libya, as well as Iraq and Syria, to support Islamic extremism.
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Last week the head of Tunisia’s state TV was sacked after broadcasting images of the severed head of a young shepherd, Mabrouk Soltani, whose killing was claimed by members of an armed group with allegiance to IS in Sidi Bouzid governorate on 13 November.
