Terrorist attack in Tunis: what we know – the Obs

The terrorist attack of the Bardo Museum in Tunis killed 19 people, including 17 foreign tourists on Wednesday 18th March. The two armed attackers were also killed by the forces of the Tunisian order. “L’Observateur” makes the point.

# What happened?

The Tunisian Prime Minister, Habib Essid said at a press conference that the two assailants, dressed in his military uniform, opened fire with Kalashnikovs on tourists while the latter came down from their buses before the chase inside the Bardo Museum, located next to the Parliament of Tunis.

While many local media reported initially a hostage inside the museum, the Prime Minister has not confirmed.

One hundred tourists were in Inside the museum when “two or more men armed with Kalashnikovs” attacked. An employee of the museum, visibly panicked, testified that he heard “intensive fire” “around 12 pm:

My colleagues shouted,” Flee, flee, there are shots “, tells AFP Dhouha Belhaj Alaya.

“We escaped by the back door with colleagues and tourists.”

This is an assault of Tunisian police who stopped the attack and led to the death of the two attackers, which is not yet known the identity and nationality.

# What are the results?

A total of 21 people were killed in the attack, according to Prime Minister Tunisia n. Among them are 17 Polish tourists, Italian, German and Spanish.

The two victims Tunisia nnes are a policeman and a civilian.

38 people were injured, including citizens of France, South Africa, Poland, Italy and Japan, according to the government. According to a diplomatic source in Paris, four French were among the wounded.

This is the deadliest attack committed against tourists in Tunisia since the 11 April 2002 against a synagogue on the island of Djerba. Claimed by al-Qaida, he had killed 21 people, mostly German and French tourists.

# The attack she was claimed

For now, no group has claimed the attack. A jihadists l-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), very established in the region, or the Islamic state, could be the cause of the attack.

The Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid, said that the police sought- e now two or three people may have been accomplices of the two authors of the attack.

# What are the reactions?

France immediately responded to the attack. Francois Hollande expressed “solidarity of France” with Tunisia during a brief telephone conversation with his counterpart Tunisia n, Beji Caid Essebsi. The Head of State “, stressed that France was at his side.”

We are all concerned, “Judge Francois Hollande.

Tunisia faced since the revolution of January 2011 in the growth of a jihadist movement army. The e Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said that his country will do everything to prevent further attacks.

“The authorities have taken all measures to ensure that such things happen no more,” he said after visiting the wounded in hospital Charles Nicolle of Tunis.

GS