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.
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In June, ISIL claimed a deadly attack outside a popular Tunisia hotel in the resort town of Sousse, as well as an attack in March on the capital’s Bardo National Museum.
Tunis has been put under curfew and President Beji Caid Essebsi has now announced a 30-day state of emergency.
The interior ministry said 10 kilos of Semtex explosives were used in the bombing.
Several other politicians, including Abdellatif Mekki of the Islamist party Ennahda, the country’s number two political force, called for a national congress on the fight against terrorism.
He was a native of a poor area known for ultraconservative Salafists in the province of Manouba near the capital Tunis, it said in a statement.
Interior Minister Najem Gharselli named Tuesday’s attacker as Houssem Abdelli, 28, a street seller who lived near Ettadhamen, one of the poorer neighborhoods of Tunis.
According to recent reports, it seems like the country will proceed to close its borders with Libya for a total of 15 days, and hire over 6,000 more recruits for the security forces, to protect Tunisians throughout the country from any further possible attacks.
Police are analyzing the DNA of a 13th body found at the scene believed to be that of the bomber.
Reuters, citing unnamed government and security officials, said that the security officers had been boarding the bus at the time of the explosion and that the blast had probably been caused by a suicide bomber.
Hamza Meddeb, a non-resident researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said Tunisia lacks “a real concerted national strategy against terrorism, which involves the state, civil society and political parties”.
ISIS released a video earlier this year threatening to ramp up its campaign against Tunisia.
Tunisia is one of the rare success story of the Arab Spring with its democratic transition won this year Nobel peace prize.
Thousands of Tunisians are fighting in neighbouring Libya, as well as in Iraq and Syria on the side of jihadists.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry “was proud to stand with Tunisian leaders earlier this month in Tunis and reaffirm our countries’ extensive economic, governance, and security cooperation”, a spokesman for his department said.
