Interior ministry says two attackers blew themselves up near US embassy in capital, Tunis

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Two attackers on a motorbike blew themselves up outside the US embassy in Tunisia on Friday, killing a policeman and injuring several others in the country’s most serious attack in months.

The explosion took place near the embassy’s main gate, where a scorched, damaged motorbike and a damaged police vehicle lay amid debris as police gathered around and a helicopter whirled overhead.

The interior ministry said two militants were killed carrying out the attack and five police officers were injured, while a civilian suffered minor injuries. The state news agency TAP reported that one policeman was killed.

“We heard a very powerful explosion ... We saw the remains of the terrorist lying on the ground after he went on the motorbike towards the police,” said Amira, a shopkeeper.

Sirens could be heard on the major highway linking the Lac district, where the embassy is located, with Tunis and suburbs in the north. The US embassy in a tweet urged people to avoid the area.

Roads around security installations were closed in some parts of the capital and some international institutions were put on lockdown or evacuated.

Photographs of the blast site posted on social media showed debris strewn around the area of a security checkpoint that controls access to the embassy, and damaged vehicles.

Last summer, Islamic State said it was behind militant blasts that struck the capital over the course of a week, including one near the French embassy that killed a policeman.

Tunisia’s critical tourism sector is highly vulnerable to militant incidents and was devastated after two attacks in 2015 which killed scores of visitors at a beach resort and a museum.

Diplomats who have worked with Tunisia on its security capacity say it has grown more effective in preventing and responding to militant attacks in recent years.

An al-Qaida group has been sheltering for years in the desolate, hilly terrain along a stretch of the border with Algeria and sometimes clashes with security forces there, but is regarded as having been closely contained.

Hundreds of Tunisians have also travelled to Iraq, Syria or Libya in recent years to join Isis, and in 2016 members of the group rampaged across the border with Libya and fought the army in a border town, but were repulsed.

“The attack indicates that the security challenge remains a major challenge in Tunisia,” Ali Zarmedini, a local security analyst, said.

A ministry statement said the attackers in Tunis both died, while a civilian was slightly injured. One of the five injured police officers was in a critical condition, according to a lawmaker.

Security units were placed on a state of maximum alert, the ministry said. Hundreds of police swarmed around the scene and sharpshooters were visible on the roofs of nearby buildings.

Yosri Dali, the head of the armed forces and security commission, confirmed eyewitness reports that the attackers were on a motorcycle. He said in an interview with Radio Mosaïque that they blew themselves up when a police patrol stopped them to ask where they were going.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Dali said that one of the injured police officers was in critical condition. The ministry statement said the patrolling officers suffered varying degrees of injuries.

The embassy, which was stormed by a crowd of hundreds in 2012, put an advisory note on its website telling people to avoid the area.

A flag in the US embassy compound, which is surrounded by walls, could be seen fluttering above the attack scene.

Police taped off the area around the site, which was littered with charred debris. Scientific police could be seen sorting through remnants left by the attack.

The US embassy, located in a residential area on the outskirts of Tunis, was attacked in 2012 along with a nearby American school by crowds of people angry at an anti-Muslim film produced in the US. Security forces killed four people during an attack, in which the US flag was torn down and replaced with an Islamic flag.

Since the fall of Tunisia’s hardline secular dictatorship in January 2011, Salafists have increasingly come into the open.

• This article was amended on 6 March 2020. The original Associated Press copy incorrectly referred to five deaths.