A top Tunisian security official says two extremist gunmen who killed 21 people at a top museum in Tunis trained in neighbouring Libya before carrying out the deadly attack.
Rafik Chelli, the Interior Ministry’s top security official, said the attackers had slipped out of Tunisia in December and received weapons training in Libya before returning home. He told the El Hiwar El Tounsi TV channel that authorities did not have details about where or with which group they had trained.
Wednesday’s attack at the National Bardo Museum killed 21 people, 17 of them cruise ship tourists. The two gunmen were killed in a firefight. The attack of such magnitude in Tunisia — the only country to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings with a functioning democracy — raised concern about the spread of extremism to the rest of North Africa.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed responsibility. Several well-armed groups in Libya have pledged their allegiance to ISIS.
Tunisian Health Minister Samar Samoud told The Associated Press that the latest tally of victims includes four Italians, three Japanese and three French, two Spanish and two Colombians and one citizen each from Britain, Poland and Belgium. The nationalities of three victims remain unconfirmed, Samoud said.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was travelling to Tunis on a pre-scheduled visit Friday coinciding with the country’s Independence Day holiday.
Police have arrested five people described as directly tied to the two gunmen as well as four others in central Tunisia said to be supporters of their cell.
‘No to terrorism’
On Thursday, Tunisians stepped around trails of blood and broken glass outside the museum to rally in solidarity with the 21 victims and with the country’s fledgling democracy. Marchers carried signs saying, “No to terrorism,” and “Tunisia is bloodied but still standing.”
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In claiming responsibility for the attack, ISIS issued a statement and audio on jihadi websites applauding the dead gunmen as “knights” for their “blessed invasion of one of the dens of infidels and vice in Muslim Tunisia.”
Analysts cautioned against seeing every such attack as evidence of a well-organized, centrally controlled entity spanning the Middle East, saying instead that small groups could merely be taking inspiration from the high-profile militant group.
“I think ISIS is probably taking credit for something it may not have played a role in,” said Geoff Porter, a security analyst for North Africa.
Confronted with a poor economy, young Tunisians have disproportionately gone abroad to fight with extremist groups in Libya, Syria and Iraq, including some affiliated with ISIS. Upon their return home, some may have decided to carry out attacks on their own.
Tunisian authorities have estimated that of the 3,000 young people who left the country to fight with radical groups, about 500 have returned.
Crackdown on websites
At a news conference Thursday, Prime Minister Habib Essid announced new security measures around the country, including a crackdown on websites seen as promoting terrorism.
U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi by phone to offer his condolences, sympathy and support. The White House says Obama offered to keep providing assistance to Tunisia as the investigation proceeds.
The deaths of so many foreigners will damage Tunisia’s tourism industry, which draws thousands of foreigners to its Mediterranean beaches, desert oases and ancient Roman ruins. The industry had just started to recover after years of decline. The two cruise ship lines who had passengers killed in Tunis on Wednesday announced they were dropping Tunis from their itineraries for now.
Culture Minister Latifa Lakhdar gave a defiant news conference at the museum, where blood still stained the floor amid the Roman-era mosaics.
“They are targeting knowledge. They are targeting science. They are targeting reason. They are targeting history. They are targeting memory, because all these things mean nothing in their eyes,” she told reporters.
