Tunis, June 27, 2019 – Two suicide bombers attacked security forces in the Tunisian capital on Thursday, killing a police officer and wounding at least eight people including several civilians, the interior ministry said. One attack on the main street of Tunis wounded three civilians and two police personnel, the interior ministry initially said. “Five (are) wounded — three civilians and two police officers”, Interior Ministry spokesman Sofiene Zaag told AFP, before later saying that a police officer had died of his wounds.
Body parts were strewn in the road around a police car on Habib Bourguiba avenue near the old city, according to an AFP correspondent. “It was a suicide attack, which took place at 10:50 (0950 GMT),” Zaag said. The second attack targeted a base of the national guard in the capital and wounded four security personnel, the ministry said. “At 11:00 am (1000 GMT) an individual blew himself up outside the back door” of the base, wounding four security personnel, Zaag said.
Civil protection units and police rapidly deployed to Habib Bourguiba avenue, where the interior ministry is located. People initially fled in panic, before some crowded around the scene of the attack, expressing anger against the authorities. Shops and offices were closed by police.
Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings, has been hit by repeated Islamist attacks since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. On October 29, 2018 an unemployed graduate blew herself up near police cars on Habib Bourguiba, killing herself and wounding 26 people, mostly police officers, according to the interior ministry.
The Tunisian authorities said the suicide bomber had sworn allegiance to IS. The attack was the first to rock the Tunisian capital for over three and a half years. In March 2015, jihadist gunmen killed 21 tourists and a policeman at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis. And in June that year, 30 Britons were among 38 foreign holidaymakers killed in a gun and grenade attack on a beach resort near the Tunisian city of Sousse.
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Timeline of attacks on Tunisia
Tunis, June 27, 2019 – Here is a timeline of unrest in Tunisia since its revolution in 2011, after two suicide bombers struck in the capital Tunis on Thursday.
– 2013 –
– July 29: Eight soldiers are killed in the rugged Mount Chaambi area near the Algerian border, where the army has been pursuing a campaign since 2012 to neutralise Islamist militants.
– 2014 –
– June 13: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claims responsibility for an attack at the end of May on the interior minister’s home that killed four
police officers.
– July 16: Suspected jihadists kill 15 soldiers in Mount Chaambi.
– 2015 –
– March 18: Twenty-one foreign tourists are among 22 people killed by gunmen at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis.
– June 26: A massacre at a seaside resort near Sousse kills 38 people, mostly British tourists, and wounds dozens.
– November 24: A bomb blast on a bus in central Tunis kills 12 presidential guards. The Islamic State group claim responsibility for all three attacks.
– 2016 –
– March 7: In a coordinated jihadist attack in Ben Guerdane, a town near the Libyan border. As well as 55 attackers, 13 members of the security forces
and seven civilians are killed. The Tunisian authorities say it was a thwarted effort to establish an Islamic emirate in the country.
– 2018 –
– July 8: Six members of Tunisia’s security forces are killed when their cars are targeted by an explosive device near the border with Algeria. The Tunisia-based division of AQIM, Okba Ibn Nafaa, claims responsibility for the attack.
– October 29: An unemployed female graduate blows herself up in the busy upmarket Avenue Habib Bourguiba in central Tunis, killing herself and wounding at least 26 people, mostly police officers. The woman had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group.
– 2019 –
– June 27: Two suicide bombers attack security forces in Tunis, killing a police officer and wounding at least eight people including several civilians. As yet there has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks.
By AFP
