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Tunisia terror attack: 19 dead after gunmen storm museum

This article is more than 9 years old
  • Death toll at Bardo museum in Tunis includes 17 European tourists
  • A Tunisian security officer and cleaning woman were also shot dead
  • Two gunmen were killed but are believed to have had at least two accomplices
  • A further 24 were injured, including 22 tourists

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 Updated 
Wed 18 Mar 2015 14.13 EDTFirst published on Wed 18 Mar 2015 09.06 EDT
Gunmen attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis Guardian

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Stephanie Kirchgaessner has more reaction from Italy:

Paolo Gentiloni, the Italian foreign minister, said “innocent tourists” from Turin who had been on a cruise ship were attacked on a bus, but there were no more details he could confirm. While Tunisian officials said Italians were among the dead, he said he could still not confirm whether there were fatalities.

”An attack of his kind has to reinforce our determination against the terrorist threat,” he said. “This was ferocious and politically troubling,” adding that Tunisia’s government was a model for the region.

Tunisia is often described as the only success story of the Arab spring, writes Ian Black, the Guardian’s Middle East editor. Its “Jasmine revolution” in 2011 unseated a corrupt dictator relatively peacefully and ushered in a transition to democratic elections and habits. But Tunisia also has a serious jihadi problem. Here is an extract of his analysis of today’s bloody attack.

It seems no accident that western tourists were the target of the latest atrocity. In October 2013, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives on a beach in the resort of Sousse. The bomber had attempted to enter a nearby hotel but was refused entry. He then ran on to the beach and blew himself up but no one else was hurt.

“These people struck at the right moment and in exactly the right place,” Frances Ghiles, a North Africa analyst, told the Guardian. “It’s the eve of the tourist season. Last year tourism started to pick up again and the elections went well. With this attack they hit tourism and democracy at the same time. There are plenty of people who would like to derail the Tunisian experiment and the authorities take this threat very seriously. This proves yet again that this cancer is going to be with us for some time to come. But in the end I am sure the spirit of the Tunisian people will prevail.”

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Karim Mezran, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, is worried about the possibility of a clampdown on security.

If that happens it is not good news for Tunisians as it could derail the political transition in a country that has provided the only good news emerging from the Arab Spring. Prime minister Habib Essid’s secular-Islamist coalition government only took power last month. Now it faces this challenge. There is a danger Tunisia will revert to its old ways of security first.

The prime minister has, in his first remarks since the attack, talked about national unity and the coalescing of political forces to defend the state. That is encouraging. Following the assassination of the two political leaders Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi in 2013 the media and the political forces started accusing the Islamists, including Ennahda, thus causing a rift within the political structure.

Chris Stephen has sent this image from outside the Bardo museum. A tourist waves from a bus leaving the Bardo.

Bardo hostage
Bardo hostage waves Photograph: Chris Stephen
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We are reopening the live blog to add fresh updates. Stephanie Kirchgaessner emails from Rome.

Piero Fassino, the mayor of Turin, just spoke on television because 34 people - municipal workers and their family members - were caught up in the attacks. Some were on the Costa cruise ship but details are still murky. He spoke with some of the victims.

“We hope to have more reassuring news in the next few hours – that our fellow citizens are not among the victims... This confirms the strategy that international terrorism is following. Since 9/11 we have seen an increase in attacks that aim to hit anywhere and anyone. The objective is to create the biggest destabilising effect - the biggest fear, the biggest panic,” he said, adding that the “fight against terrorism should be the priority”.

Summary

This blog is closing now. Below is a summary and you can read our news story here.

  • Nineteen people, including 17 tourists have been killed by gunmen in an attack on visitors to the Bardo museum, home to one of the world’s largest collection of Roman mosaics, in Tunis.
  • The two gunmen were also killed but an operation to find up to three suspected accomplices is still underway, the Tunisian prime minister Habib Essid said.
  • No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but it was hailed by supporters of Islamic State, also known as Isis, and Essid blamed “terrorists”. Tunisia has been concerned about about fighters returning from Syria. Some 3,000 Tunisians have gone to fight with Isis.
  • The gunmen opened fire on tourists as they were getting off buses before fleeing into the museum, a Bardo employee told Reuters at the scene.
  • The murdered tourists were from Germany, Italy, France and Poland. A Tunisian security officer and cleaning woman were also shot dead.
  • Another 24 people were injured, including 22 tourists.



The Associated Press says that some of the Italians at the museum were believed to have been passengers aboard the Costa Fascinosa, a cruise liner making a seven-day trip of the western Mediterranean that had docked in Tunis.

Ship owner Costa Crociere confirmed that some of its 3,161 passengers were visiting the capital Wednesday and that a Bardo tour was on the itinerary, but said it couldn’t confirm how many passengers were in the museum at the time.

Another cruise operator has released the statement below:

Breaking: MSC Cruises Statement on situation in Tunisia pic.twitter.com/Aplgl9D6JA

— Ryan Ruggiero (@RyanRuggiero) March 18, 2015

Chris Stephen outside the Bardo museum, has sent a further update on the survivors of the siege:

More than 100 European tourists freed at the end of the siege were driven out of the museum gates, their faces showing a mixture of anxiety and relief. The tourists, a mixture of men and women, young and old, stared out into space, some giving smiles at crowds still packed outside the gates. One young blonde woman inside the first bus grinned and waved her hand. Dozens of armed police and troops remain inside the museum complex sealed off from the city.

Several hundred Tunisians massed around the gates cheered and whistled but the implications of today’s killing, and its effect on the country’s fragile economy, dependent on tourism, are only starting to be digested.

Like its Italian counterpart, the German government seems to be in the dark about whether any of its citizens were killed in Tunis, despite the Tunisian prime minister statement that that was the case.

Ben Knight, for the Guardian, reports that a foreign ministry spokeswoman said that they did not know anything yet, and were in contact with the embassy in Tunis. In an emailed statement, the ministry said it was “making efforts to find out if German nationals have been affected”.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Tunisia's Bardo museum delays planned public reopening

  • Tunis museum attacks: police hunt third suspect in shootings

  • Tunis gunmen trained with Libyan militia, says security chief

  • Tunisian PM promises 'detailed investigation' into Bardo Museum attacks

  • Five Tunisia terror victims were passengers on Costa cruise ship

  • Troops patrol streets of Tunis in aftermath of terror attacks

  • Tunisia museum attack: funeral held in Tunis for police officer - video

  • Isis claims responsibility for Tunisia murders

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