Suicide attackers hit outdoors US embassy in Tunis

Suicide attackers struck outdoors the US embassy within the Tunisian capital on Friday, killing a police officer, wounding six different folks and as soon as once more shaking a metropolis repeatedly hit by jihadist violence.

The newest assault comes regardless of a state of emergency imposed within the North African nation in 2015 following a string of bloody assaults claimed by the Islamic State group.

An explosion at round noon rocked the Berges du Lac district, the place the extremely fortified embassy is situated, inflicting panic amongst pedestrians and motorists.

“Two people focused a safety patrol… on the street resulting in the American embassy,” the inside ministry mentioned in an announcement.

There was no rapid declare of accountability.

Police on the scene mentioned the assailants drove to the realm on a motorbike and detonated their explosive gadgets as they had been approached by officers deployed at a roundabout resulting in the embassy.

The 2 attackers died and one officer, recognized as 52-year-old father of three Lieutenant Taoufik Mohammed El Nissaoui, died of his wounds.

5 extra injured officers and a flippantly wounded feminine civilian had been in a steady state, Inside Minister Hichem Mechichi informed journalists.

“It was a selfmade explosive gadget and we’re searching for those that helped make it,” he mentioned.

Native media reported police raids on two working-class neighbourhoods in northern Tunis.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened an enquiry, spokesman Sofiene Sliti mentioned, however no arrests had but been made and the 2 attackers haven’t been formally recognized.

“All safety items are on excessive alert,” the inside ministry mentioned.

After Friday’s blast, police dispatched reinforcements and forensic specialists to the realm, the place physique components had been strewn throughout the bottom.

A helicopter buzzed over the Berges du Lac, a district protected round the clock by safety forces.

“It is powerful to should go on working when your colleagues have been wounded,” mentioned a police officer on the scene.

Workplace employee Haykel Boukraa spoke of widespread panic.

“Our workplace is 300 metres from (the blast scene), however the explosion was so loud that the home windows in our constructing shook,” the 49-year-old informed AFP.

“There was complete panic,” he mentioned. “We did not know if we must always keep put or go away the workplace.”

– Years of bloody assaults –

Earlier police had mentioned one of many two assailants had tried to enter the embassy however was prevented by police.

However inside ministry spokesman Khaled Ayouni informed AFP that “the police patrol was focused, reasonably than the embassy”, noting that the assault occurred the day earlier than the fourth anniversary of a serious terrorist assault in Tunisia.

In March 2016, an assault on safety installations within the city of Ben Guerdane on the Libyan border killed 13 safety forces and 7 civilians.

The US embassy mentioned Friday in an announcement on Twitter: “Emergency personnel are responding to an explosion that occurred close to the U.S. Embassy in Tunis.

“Please keep away from the realm and monitor native media for updates.”

Tunisia confronted an increase in jihadist exercise after its 2011 revolution, with assaults killing dozens of safety personnel, civilians and overseas vacationers.

Whereas the safety scenario has considerably improved since a collection of lethal assaults in 2015, Tunisia has maintained a state of emergency. Assaults on safety forces have endured, primarily in distant areas alongside the border with Algeria.

Earlier than Friday, the final assaults had been in June 2019, when twin bombings focused a police station on the outskirts of Tunis and a police automobile on the capital’s predominant throughfare.

A civilian and a policeman had been killed in these assaults, whereas seven had been wounded.

In 2018, six members of Tunisia’s safety forces had been killed when their automobiles had been focused by an explosive gadget close to the border with Algeria.

That very same yr an unemployed feminine graduate blew herself up within the busy upmarket Avenue Habib Bourguiba in central Tunis, killing herself and wounding a minimum of 26 folks, largely law enforcement officials.

However the deadliest yr for jihadist violence since Tunisia’s revolution was 2015.

An assault on the capital’s Bardo museum in March killed 21 overseas vacationers and a safety guard. Simply three months later, 38 overseas vacationers had been killed in a capturing rampage on the coastal resort of Sousse.

And that November, a bomb blast on a bus in central Tunis killed 12 presidential guards.

All three of the 2015 assaults had been claimed by the Islamic State group.