Tunisia Museum Attack

Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Tunisia Museum Attack

Hooded police officers stand guard over the coffin of elite security member Aymen Morjen Thursday. Mr. Morjen was killed in the Wednesday attack at the Bardo National Museum. Photo: Associated Press

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a museum in Tunisia and warned of more bloodshed to come, as the president of the North African nation said he was deploying additional security forces to protect the largest cities.

Wednesday’s attack on the Bardo National Museum in the capital Tunis left 21 people dead, including 18 foreign tourists.

The extremist group said the attack was aimed at “citizens of Crusader countries” and added that it was the “first drop of rain.”

Islamic State’s claim of responsibility was made in a statement disseminated by the group’s media arm on Thursday and monitored by the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based organization that tracks jihadist social media.

The statement named Abu Zakaria al-Tunisi and Abu Anas al-Tunisi as the leaders of the operation and hailed them as martyrs.

The names appear to be aliases for Hatem Khachnaou and Yassine Labidi, who were identified by Tunisian security officials as the two gunmen killed when government security forces retook control of the museum.

The White House said it couldn’t confirm Islamic State’s claim, but added that the attack resembled previous operations the group had carried out.


In announcing that he was bolstering security in Tunisia’s main cities, President Beji Caid Essebsi cited exceptional circumstances and said the measure was aimed at stemming a terrorist threat that had moved from the country’s “mountains to the cities.”

Mr. Essebsi said nine people had been arrested in connection with the assault. He said four of those detained were directly involved in the attack. Gunmen—some wearing Tunisian military uniforms—stormed the museum after failing to launch an assault on the nearby national assembly, where lawmakers were debating an antiterrorism bill.

Tunisia’s interior ministry has said the small nation accounts for some 3,000 of the foreign fighters who have joined radical groups fighting in Iraq and Syria, making it the largest contributor of any nation.

Tunisia has made a largely successful democratic transition since a popular revolt unseated the longtime autocratic regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.

In December, Mr. Essebsi was swept into office as Tunisia’s first freely elected president following a campaign during which he promised to restore security in the nation of 11 million that has been facing a low-level Islamist insurgency on its frontiers with Algeria and Libya.

The return of those fighters, in addition to the porous border the country shares with conflict-racked Libya, has preoccupied Tunisian politics despite democratic advances that have eclipsed those of other nations in the region, which witnessed popular revolts against autocratic regimes.
But the transition wasn’t without violent fits.

In 2013, two secular political leaders, Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, were assassinated in separate incidents.

In December, in the midst of Tunisia’s first democratic presidential election, Islamic State militants took responsibility for the killings and vowed to continue targeting Tunisia.
Militant groups in neighboring Libya who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State have recently carried out major attacks targeting foreigners.

In February, the group took responsibility for beheading 21 Egyptian migrant workers near the capital Tripoli and in January it attacked a luxury hotel there, killing nine people, including an American.
Ennahda, the Islamist political party that initially dominated successive regimes during Tunisia’s post-2011 transition and now controls the second-largest share of seats in Parliament, said it was “horrified by this attack and strongly condemns all acts of violence against Tunisia and its visitors.”
Tunisia’s health ministry on Thursday revised the toll of victims in the museum siege to 21 from 20. The total included 18 foreign tourists, a police officer, a museum employee and a third Tunisian who wasn’t identified.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Thursday identified one of the tourists killed in the assault as Sally Adey, a British citizen. Mr. Hammond also condemned the attack, which occurred in a nation that has until now been largely free of the violence that has rocked other countries swept by Arab Spring upheaval.

“The Tunisian people are rightly proud of their democratic transition. Cowardly attacks, such as the one we saw [Wednesday], must not be allowed to undermine what they have achieved,” he said.

 Reference: http://www.wsj.com/articles/death-toll-in-tunisia-tourist-massacre-rises-to-21-1426770597