At least 21 people, most of them foreign tourists, were killed and dozens more injured when gunmen reportedly sympathetic to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attacked a museum Wednesday located in the parliamentary compound in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It was the deadliest terror attack on civilians in more than ten years in Tunisia, the north African country known for its relative stability.
The attack took place around noon local time, when gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed Tunisia’s national museum, called the Bardo and one of the most popular tourist attractions in Tunis. The gunmen opened fire on tourists and took some as hostages. Two terrorists were killed in a gunfight with security forces who entered the compound.
Reuters reported:
The museum is known for its collection of ancient Tunisian artifacts and mosaics and other treasures from classical Rome and Greece. There were no immediate reports that the attackers had copied Islamic State militants in Iraq by targeting exhibits seen by hardliners as idolatrous. …
Shocked but defiant, hundreds of Tunisians later gathered in the streets of downtown Tunis waving the country’s red and white crescent flag, and chanting against terrorism.
“I pass this message to Tunisians, that democracy will win and it will survive,” President Beji Caid Essebsi said in a television statement. “We will find more ways and equipment for the army to wipe out these barbarous groups for good.”
Al Arabiya added some context to yesterday’s terror attack:
Tunisia, whose 2011 uprising against autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali inspired “Arab Spring” revolts in Egypt, Syria and Libya, has up to now largely avoided the chaos and violence that has plagued those countries.
But Tunisia’s armed forces have been fighting Islamist militants who emerged after the uprising.
Several thousand Tunisians have also left the country to fight for militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Libya, and the government is worried about returning jihadis carrying out attacks at home.
[Photo: Тэлеканал Белсат / YouTube ]