The Islamic State on Thursday claimed responsibility for an attack in Tunisia that killed 20 tourists at a well-known museum in the country’s capital.
In an audio statement released on social media, the Islamic State named the two gunmen it said had carried out the Wednesday attack, called them “knights of the caliphate,” and threatened more violence in Tunisia. “You will not enjoy security nor peace as far as the Islamic State has men like these,” the statement said.
But Tunisian authorities said they had yet to tie any of the attack’s perpetrators to the Islamic State, and another group’s claim of responsibility was posted by Oqba Ibn Nafaa, a group affiliated with al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, al Qaida’s branch that operates in Mali and southern Algeria.
Media accounts said authorities had arrested nine people who are suspected of helping the gunmen. Four of them, according the authorities’ statement, were suspected of having direct connections to the attack.
The assault at the Bardo museum, a treasure house of artwork dating to Roman times, was the worst terrorist violence in Tunisia in more than a decade and the first aimed at tourists in Tunis, the country’s capital. The dead included citizens from a variety of nations, including Italy, Spain and Germany, who had arrived on cruise ships.
The Islamic State statement called the victims “a filthy group of crusader-state citizens.” It referred to Tunisian authorities as “apostates” and said the visitors had turned Tunisia into a “field for their disbelief and immorality.”
Tunisia has been plagued by radical Islamists since 2011, when it became the first so-called Arab Spring country to throw off a dictatorial regime. Since then, the country has changed governments twice, with an Islamist government turning power over to a more secular one.
Tunisians, however, have become a major presence in the Islamic State. An estimated 3,500 have joined the group fighting in Syria and Iraq, and an estimated 4,000 more are said to be fighting with the group in neighboring Libya. An estimated 500 to 1,000 Tunisians have returned from war zones and have been interviewed by authorities.
According to accounts from Tunis, the two gunmen, wearing military uniforms, attacked the tourists as they were leaving buses to enter the museum. The gunmen took the tourists hostage and held them for two hours before Tunisian security forces counterattacked. In addition to the tourists, one police officer died while freeing the captives, the Reuters news agency reported.
The Islamic State recording gave the names of the gunmen as Zakaria al Tunisi and Abu Anas al Tunisi.
A North African security expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, told McClatchy that the “two terrorists killed in yesterday’s attack came from the Kasserine region, a poor area near the border with Algeria.”
The Islamic State warned that the operation is only “the first drop of the rain,” suggesting more attacks in the future.