An explosion tore through a bus carrying members of President Beji Caid Essebsi’s security guard in the heart of Tunisia’s capital on Tuesday evening, killing at least 12 people and prompting Mr Essebsi to declare a 30-day state of emergency.
Advertisement
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.
ISIS has released an image of the suicide bomber they claim launched an attack on the Tunisian presidential guard bus yesterday. The explosives had been traced to Libya, it said. Only those with booked flights were allowed to enter the Tunis worldwide airport.
No one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack in central Tunis.
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.
“According to the preliminary details, the attacker was wearing a bag on his back”.
The country’s president declared a month-long state of emergency following the attack.
A security source at the site said “most of the agents who were on the bus are dead” after the attack in Tunis, which has become a target of jihadist violence since the 2011 revolution. The opposition Ennahda Party, Tunisia’s moderate Islamists, has drawn a link between poverty and terrorism.
But Islamist militants now pose a serious challenge for a country heavily reliant on tourism for its hard currency.
Tunisia has been working closely with USA and United Kingdom security services as its emerged that 3,000 Tunisian nationals have joined jihadi groups fighting in Iraq and Syria.
“Brazil sends its condolences to the victims’ families and reiterates its repudiation of terrorist acts of all sorts, whatever their pretexts may be”, a Foreign Ministry statement on the events in Tunisia reads.
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.
Advertisement
Tunisia’s National Security Council on Wednesday ordered the frontier with Libya closed for 15 days and called for tighter checks at all other land and sea borders, according to the Mosaique FM radio station. Many returned after they grew disappointed with the group’s actions, especially as ISIS and other militant groups focused their fight on other Sunni Syrian rebel groups.
