Maghreb News/ Tunisie
A bomb explosion ripped through a bus carrying crack presidential troops at the heart of the Tunisian capital on Tuesday, killing at least 12 members of the elite force.
The bombing described by the authorities as a terrorist attack cast a veil of sadness on a mostly deserted Tunis center that was beaming with life minutes before the blast struck at a rush hour.
Security experts said an attack in a Tunisian city was widely expected following Paris’s bloody rampage and Bamako’s hotel masscre as well as the dismantling of a terrorist cell which was readying bomb attacks in Sousse and the seizure by police of a would-be suicide bomber in Tunis last week.
But few of them expected the careful choice of the bombing target – presidential guards tasked with protecting the country’s ruling elites—as well as the site of the blast — closer to the interior and tourism ministries as well as main banks including the Central Bank and few yards away from the landmark Bourguiba avenue teeming with cinema goers.
The blast on an adjacent street from the tree-lined Mohamed V avenue in central Tunis came after two attacks earlier this year in which 60 people were killed , most of them foreign tourists, to ruin the key tourism industry.
The Health Ministry said 12 presidential guards were killed in the bombing and 20 others were wounded, though President Beji Caid Essebsi suggesed the death toll could be higher as he said full closure about the attack would not be coming soon.
Essebsi, who wasnt in the bus at the time of the attack, declared a 30-day state of emergency across the country and imposed an overnight curfew on the Tunis region. He summoned an emergency meeting of his security council for Wednesday morning.
A state of emergency was in force in the North African country until early October, imposed after the killing of 38 people in Sousse.
Speaking on national television, he said Tunisia is at war against terrorism as part of global fight against Jihadist groups.
He sounded upbeat insisting the « fear will be brought to the terrorist camp » .
« I want to reassure the Tunisian people that we will vanquish terrorism, » he said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack against the presidential guard but local experts believe the attack bear all the marks of Islamic State’s and other Jihadist groups’ suicide bombers.
Police cordoned the bombing site to prevent reporters from coming closer while ambulances rushed to the scene, evacuating wounded and dead.
Prime Minister Habib Essid and Interior Minister Najem Gharsalli visited the scene of the attack amid tight security.
At least one femal journalist was hit by police when she attempted to break through the police cordon.
The attack came days after authorities increased security to shield cinema lovers and foreign visitors during the 26th Carthage Film Festival which is a showcase for Arab and African cinematographers.
Festival director Ibrahim Letaief said the festival, opening just a week after jihadist attacks in Paris left 130 people dead, is an « antidote to violence », as film « tears away the veil of darkness and is the guarantor of the greatest victory over terrorism ».
And Interior Minister Gharsalli insisted that « we have taken the necessary measures to guarantee maximum security, because this event represents the joy of Tunisians and of our guests ».
The killing of the presidential guards came as another blow to the image of the country whose leaders seek to highlight its role as a bellwether of the Arab Spring which brought upheavals to the Middle East and North Africa while Tunisia was basking on the world’s enthusiasm about its exceptional experiment as a peaceful democracy in transition.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Tunis earlier this month, pledged increased economic and security aid for Tunisia to help it fight Jihadist threats at home and from across the border with Libya Where ISIS is busy luring Tunisian recruits to its war battlefielfds.