Gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed Tunisia’s national
museum on Wednesday, killing 17 foreign tourists and two Tunisians in one of
the worst militant attacks in a country that had largely escaped the region’s
“Arab Spring” turmoil.Five Japanese, as well as visitors from Italy, Poland and Spain were among the dead in the noon assault on Bardo museum inside the
heavily guarded parliament compound in central Tunis, Prime Minister Habib
Essid said.They started opening fire on the tourists as they were getting out of the buses. I couldn’t see anything except blood and the dead, the driver of a tourist coach told journalists at the scene.
Scores of visitors fled into the museum and the militants took hostages inside, officials said. Security forces entered around two hours later, killed two militants and freed the captives, a government spokesman said. A police officer died in the operation.
The attack on such a high-profile target is a blow for the small North African country that relies heavily on European tourism and has mostly avoided major militant violence since
its 2011 uprising to oust autocrat
Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. Several Islamist militant groups have emerged in Tunisia since the uprising, and authorities estimate about 3,000 Tunisians have joined fighters in Iraq and Syria, igniting fears they could return and mount attacks at home.
- Accor, Europe’s largest hotel group, said it had tightened security at its two hotels in Tunisia.
Source: Africa Newswire
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