This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/world/africa/gunmen-attack-tunis-bardo-national-museum.html

The article has changed 12 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 5 Version 6
Tunisia Museum Attack Leaves 19 Dead; 2 Gunmen Killed in Firefight Tunisia Museum Attack Leaves 19 Dead; 2 Gunmen Killed in Firefight
(about 4 hours later)
CAIRO — Gunmen in military uniforms attacked a museum in downtown Tunis around noon on Wednesday, killing 19 people, officials said. Security forces later advanced into the museum and killed two gunmen in a firefight, state television reported. CAIRO — Gunmen in military uniforms mounted a brazen midday attack on a museum in central Tunis on Wednesday, killing 19 people. The attack dealt a new blow to Tunisia’s pivotal tourist industry as the country struggles to consolidate its transition to democracy after the Arab Spring revolt.
Prime Minister Habib Essid said at a news conference that the dead included 17 foreigners and two Tunisians. Polish, Italian, Spanish and German tourists were among the dead, Mr. Essid said. Prime Minister Habib Essid said in a news conference that security forces killed two gunmen inside the building, the National Bardo Museum, but that two or three accomplices might still be at large. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but supporters of the militant group Islamic State celebrated the attack in social media postings.
Eight people were killed as they got off a bus to visit the museum, according to an Interior Ministry spokesman; 10 more were taken hostage and then killed. State television reported that a Tunisian museum guard who was injured in the attack and died later of his wounds. Mr. Essid said that 17 foreign visitors were killed, including Polish, Italian, Spanish and German tourists, and that two Tunisians were killed, one of them a member of the security forces. At least 20 others were injured.
The prime minister said that 22 more people had been injured in the attack. Tunisian officials said earlier that the attackers had killed nine people and taken 10 hostages, but after security forces entered and retook the museum about three hours later, the death toll increased to 19, raising questions about how and when the 10 hostages had died.
Local media reports said that it was possible a third gunman was involved and was still at large, and that there were possibly other accomplices as well. Tunisian authorities said at midafternoon that the operation to retake the museum was continuing and was nearly complete. Calling the attack “the first operation of its kind ever to occur in Tunisia” because it struck directly at the country’s crucial tourism industry, Mr. Essid urged Tunisians to unite against the terrorist threat. “We will show no compassion and no mercy in defending our country,” he said.
The attack began at a time when hundreds of visitors were on their way into the museum. Interior ministry officials said the gunmen were armed with grenades and assault rifles. Gunfire was first heard around 12:30 p.m. Mr. Essid said that the two gunmen who were killed were believed to be Tunisians, but their identity and motives were not immediately clear.
Helicopters buzzed over the area in the afternoon, and Tunisian state television said they were evacuating people from the area, possibly including those injured in the attack. Tunisia has made more progress in its transition from dictatorship to democracy than any other state in the Arab world, recently completing presidential and parliamentary elections and a peaceful handover of political power from one governing party to another.
The site of the attack, the National Bardo Museum, is in central Tunis near the national Parliament, which was evacuated as police officers responded to the attack and surrounded the area. But its security forces have also struggled to deal with periodic attacks by Islamist extremists. And Tunisia has emerged as one the biggest sources of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Syria and Iraq.
The identity and motivation of the attackers were not immediately clear. No group had claimed responsibility for the attack by early evening. An Interior Ministry spokesman said that the gunmen had probably been Tunisians, but their nationality had not been confirmed. The advent of democracy has provided new freedom for the group’s recruiters to preach their message, while the country struggles with an economy hobbled by years of tumult and with an abusive police force left over from the authoritarian system that broke down in 2011. It is easy to find young Tunisians who are captivated by the militants’ promises of justice and opportunity.
Tunisian officials said it was possible that the Parliament, rather than the museum, was the original intended target of the attack; some reports said that legislators were discussing an antiterrorism law on Wednesday. No specific evidence had emerged by Wednesday night linking the museum attack to the Islamic State. But its supporters celebrated the attack on social media, citing a video posted online in December that warned of attacks to come. In the video, Boubakr Hakim, a Tunisian militant known as Abu Moqatel, urged support for the Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the assassinations of two left-leaning Tunisian politicians and warned, “You will not live in safety as long as Tunisia is not ruled by Islam.”
Many Italians were in the area when the attack took place, the Italian foreign ministry said. A large cruise ship, the Costa Fascinosa, was docked in Tunis on Wednesday morning, and a number of its 3,100 passengers had gone ashore planning to visit the museum, a spokesman for the cruise line said. Piero Fassino, the mayor of Turin, Italy, told Italian television that six City Hall workers were there, but that only two had been heard from. “We are waiting for news with a certain anguish,” he said. The Tunisian Parliament, whose building is near the museum in the historic medina, or ancient quarter, of the capital, was debating legislation to combat terrorism as the attack began. Security forces evacuated the building. Tunisian officials speculated on Wednesday that the Parliament might have been the attackers’ intended target.
Tunisia was the country where the Arab Spring revolts against autocratic rule began four years ago. Instead, though, the attackers moved toward the museum at around 12:30 p.m., just as buses were unloading hundreds of tourists from cruise ships in the harbor, witnesses said. The two gunmen were dressed in military-style uniforms and were armed with grenades and assault rifles, officials said.
Of all the countries affected, Tunisia has made the most successful transition toward democracy, recently completing presidential and parliamentary elections and a peaceful rotation of political power. Security forces have struggled against occasional attacks by Islamic extremists, but they have usually occurred in mountainous areas far from the capital. Noriko Yuki, 35, a Japanese tourist who arrived in Tunis Wednesday morning on a cruise from Italy with her mother, said she heard bullets flying over their heads and swiftly dropped to the ground, but one grazed her cheek.
Recruiters for the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, have sought to take advantage of the new level of freedom after the revolution, as well as the economic disruptions, high youth unemployment and resentment of the country’s often abusive police force, which is left over from the old authoritarian order. Those factors have helped make Tunisia one of the biggest sources of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State’s fight in Syria and Iraq. “I started shaking my mother to see if she was alive, but she was not responding,” Ms. Yuki said in an interview at the hospital where she taken by the security forces. “I lost track of her.”
In a video that circulated online last December, three Tunisian fighters with the Islamic State are heard warning that Tunisians would not live securely “as long as Tunisia is not governed by Islam.” One of the fighters who appeared in the video was Boubakr Hakim, a suspect wanted in connection with the 2013 assassination of a left-leaning Tunisian politician, Chokri Belaid. The Italian Foreign Ministry said that three Italian citizens were among the dead and at least six were injured. Many of the cruise ship passengers were Italian, a cruise line spokesman said. Piero Fassino, the mayor of Turin, Italy, told Italian television that six City Hall workers were at the museum during the attack, but that only two had been heard from. “We are waiting for news with a certain anguish,” he said.
As the assault on the museum unfolded on Wednesday, supporters of the Islamic State circulated the video again on social media, celebrating the attack as a fulfillment of that warning.
The attack on the museum appeared to be the deadliest terrorist attack involving foreigners in Tunisia since 2002, when a truck filled with propane was detonated outside a synagogue on the island of Djerba, killing 21 people including some European tourists.The attack on the museum appeared to be the deadliest terrorist attack involving foreigners in Tunisia since 2002, when a truck filled with propane was detonated outside a synagogue on the island of Djerba, killing 21 people including some European tourists.
The Bardo Museum houses a large collection of antiquities, including many important mosaics dating from the Roman and Carthaginian era, as well as Phoenician and Byzantine ceramics, statuary and jewelry, among other works. “This is one of the most important museums in North Africa,” said Mounir Bouchenaki, who heads the Arab Regional Center for World Heritage for Unesco, the United Nations cultural agency.
Militants have sometimes destroyed ancient cultural artifacts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere that they deemed un-Islamic. But Unesco said in a statement Wednesday evening that there was no sign of damage to the Bardo Museum or its collection.