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| Suspected Accomplices Arrested in Tunisian Museum Attack | Suspected Accomplices Arrested in Tunisian Museum Attack |
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| CAIRO — Tunisian authorities have arrested nine people suspected of helping the two gunmen who mounted a deadly attack on a museum in Tunis, the office of the Tunisian president said on Thursday. Officials said they had not established a link between any known terrorist group and either of the gunmen, who were killed by security forces responding to the attack. | CAIRO — Tunisian authorities have arrested nine people suspected of helping the two gunmen who mounted a deadly attack on a museum in Tunis, the office of the Tunisian president said on Thursday. Officials said they had not established a link between any known terrorist group and either of the gunmen, who were killed by security forces responding to the attack. |
| The statement from the president’s office said that at least four of the nine arrested suspects had direct connections to the attack at the museum, and the others were associates. | |
| Officials said that because of the threat of terrorism, the Tunisian Army was deploying troops to secure the country’s major cities. | |
| The gunmen, who killed at least 20 people in a midday attack on Wednesday at the National Bardo Museum, were identified by officials as Yassine Laabidi and Hatem Khachnaoui. | The gunmen, who killed at least 20 people in a midday attack on Wednesday at the National Bardo Museum, were identified by officials as Yassine Laabidi and Hatem Khachnaoui. |
| Prime Minister Habib Essid said in an interview with RTL, a French radio network, that Mr. Laabidi had previously caught the attention of Tunisian intelligence agencies, but not for “anything special.” He said that the Tunisian authorities were working with other governments to learn more about the backgrounds and motives of the gunmen. | Prime Minister Habib Essid said in an interview with RTL, a French radio network, that Mr. Laabidi had previously caught the attention of Tunisian intelligence agencies, but not for “anything special.” He said that the Tunisian authorities were working with other governments to learn more about the backgrounds and motives of the gunmen. |
| Two Spanish tourists who hid inside the museum to escape the attackers were discovered there on Thursday morning, according to news reports citing the Spanish Foreign Ministry. Tunisian health officials said that at least one person who was wounded in the attack died overnight, raising the death toll to at least 20, not including the two assailants. | |
| Tunisians crowded through the gates into the museum compound on Thursday afternoon, bearing flowers and banners protesting the violence of the previous day. They lay wreathes and lit candles before dark red pools of blood still visible at the base of a line of palm trees. Splashes of blood marked the sidewalk and the wall of the museum where some of the victims fell, and a bloodied stretcher stood against a tree. | |
| “We came to say the Tunisians are against terrorism,” said Nourredine Senoussi, a retired public servant who came with a friend to lay a wreath. “We have to unite with one voice.” | |
| Police officers at the scene said that the gunmen who attacked the museum had hidden their assault rifles under their jackets, and had taken advantage of the arrival of busloads of tourists at the museum to slip through the guarded entrance gates. There were only two gunmen, the officers said, declining to give their names in accordance with Police Department rules. | |
| They said the gunmen opened fire as soon as the tourists began disembarking from the buses in the parking lot in front of the museum. They then ran to the side of the building and threw three grenades at the police guarding the nearby National Assembly building before doubling back into the museum. | |
| “I was guarding the assembly building,” one police lieutenant in a crumpled suit recalled. “I led about 100 tourists out from the museum to safety. They were all old people.” He added, “I did not sleep all night. It was unacceptable what they did here.” | |
| Amel Jeddi, whose husband, a police officer, was killed in an attack in 2011, said of the gunmen: “They are against the state and security forces. It’s all political. They do not want Tunisia to be stable. They want to create chaos and make the country like Libya and Syria.” | |
| At a hospital across town, a group of Italian relatives clung to one another as they walked down a sloping ramp to the morgue to identify the bodies of some of the victims of the attack. Two men embraced in a long hug as a grandmother stood by. The three then entered the building arm in arm without speaking to reporters. | |
| Tunisia, the lone success among the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, has struggled to cope with Islamist militant groups as it consolidates its transition to democracy after the removal of the longtime strongman Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. | |
| The country’s economic difficulties and turbulent politics after decades of repression have also helped make it a leading source of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in its battles in Syria and Iraq. | |
| Supporters of the Islamic State celebrated the attack in Tunis and circulated a video first posted online in December that warned in general terms of violence to come. In the video, a prominent Tunisian militant, Boubakr Hakim, known as Abu Moqatel, is seen claiming responsibility for the assassination of two left-leaning politicians and urging his countrymen to take up arms for the Islamic State. | |
| “You will not live in safety as long as Tunisia is not ruled by Islam,” he says, taunting other Tunisians for failing to join his fight. “Women are more courageous than you are.” | “You will not live in safety as long as Tunisia is not ruled by Islam,” he says, taunting other Tunisians for failing to join his fight. “Women are more courageous than you are.” |
| By Thursday there were multiple attempts by various groups to claim some association with the attack, but none could be immediately confirmed. | By Thursday there were multiple attempts by various groups to claim some association with the attack, but none could be immediately confirmed. |
| Islamic State supporters circulated a terse audio statement on Thursday from one of the group’s media outlets, claiming responsibility for the attack and naming the gunmen under the aliases Zakaria al-Tunisi and Abu Anas al-Tunisi. | Islamic State supporters circulated a terse audio statement on Thursday from one of the group’s media outlets, claiming responsibility for the attack and naming the gunmen under the aliases Zakaria al-Tunisi and Abu Anas al-Tunisi. |
| “We tell the apostates who sit on the chest of Muslim Tunisia: Wait for the glad tidings of what will harm you, impure ones, for what you have seen today is the first drop of the rain, God willing,” the group said in the audio statement, according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that tracks extremist groups. “You will not enjoy security, nor be pleased with peace, while the Islamic State has men like these,” the statement said. | “We tell the apostates who sit on the chest of Muslim Tunisia: Wait for the glad tidings of what will harm you, impure ones, for what you have seen today is the first drop of the rain, God willing,” the group said in the audio statement, according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that tracks extremist groups. “You will not enjoy security, nor be pleased with peace, while the Islamic State has men like these,” the statement said. |
| On Wednesday night, a Tunisian militant group calling itself the Uqba ibn Nafi Battalion posted a more detailed message, praising the attack and including details about it that contradicted reports from the Tunisian authorities. The Uqba ibn Nafi group has pledged its loyalty to Al Qaeda’s North African branch, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. | On Wednesday night, a Tunisian militant group calling itself the Uqba ibn Nafi Battalion posted a more detailed message, praising the attack and including details about it that contradicted reports from the Tunisian authorities. The Uqba ibn Nafi group has pledged its loyalty to Al Qaeda’s North African branch, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. |
| Its message named the attackers, but it rendered their names as Yassin al-Obeidi and Sabr al-Khachnaoui, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group. | Its message named the attackers, but it rendered their names as Yassin al-Obeidi and Sabr al-Khachnaoui, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group. |
| Some observers questioned whether that message had originated from Uqba ibn Nafi, or had merely been circulated by the group. | Some observers questioned whether that message had originated from Uqba ibn Nafi, or had merely been circulated by the group. |
| The message also included photographs that appeared to show the bodies of the attackers — young men with assault rifles, each lying in a pool of blood and wearing running shoes and casual clothes. Tunisian officials had said the attackers wore military uniforms. | The message also included photographs that appeared to show the bodies of the attackers — young men with assault rifles, each lying in a pool of blood and wearing running shoes and casual clothes. Tunisian officials had said the attackers wore military uniforms. |
| The message appeared to stop short of claiming responsibility for the attack or of identifying a group behind it. “We will not answer this now, in order to listen to more of your ridiculous analysis and your weeping and crying on television and radio, and to laugh more at the inefficiency of your apostate masters,” it said. | The message appeared to stop short of claiming responsibility for the attack or of identifying a group behind it. “We will not answer this now, in order to listen to more of your ridiculous analysis and your weeping and crying on television and radio, and to laugh more at the inefficiency of your apostate masters,” it said. |
| It also gave a detailed account of the operation; it was unclear whether the account was based on inside knowledge of the attacks or had merely been gleaned from reports in the Tunisian news media. In citing the details, the message mocked the spokesman for the Tunisian Interior Ministry, Mohamed Ali al-Arawi, by name. | It also gave a detailed account of the operation; it was unclear whether the account was based on inside knowledge of the attacks or had merely been gleaned from reports in the Tunisian news media. In citing the details, the message mocked the spokesman for the Tunisian Interior Ministry, Mohamed Ali al-Arawi, by name. |
| “These are details of the operation, O Arawi, O liar, O apostate,” the message said. “Do not search much and lie to the silly ones, your companions, and claim that you are still searching and investigating and want to know what happened.” | “These are details of the operation, O Arawi, O liar, O apostate,” the message said. “Do not search much and lie to the silly ones, your companions, and claim that you are still searching and investigating and want to know what happened.” |
| The message also mocked Ennahda, a party of moderate Islamists who denounced the attack. It reveled in the decline in the Tunisian stock market after the attack, and suggested that sympathizers who were reluctant to combat security forces should consider attacking unarmed tourists, whose spending is crucial to the Tunisian economy. | The message also mocked Ennahda, a party of moderate Islamists who denounced the attack. It reveled in the decline in the Tunisian stock market after the attack, and suggested that sympathizers who were reluctant to combat security forces should consider attacking unarmed tourists, whose spending is crucial to the Tunisian economy. |
| Westerners and Israelis, the group suggested, were ideal targets. “You should hunt them everywhere, especially the French, the Americans, the British and the Israelis,” the message said. “Lure them in roads, lodges, dance clubs and bars. Slaughter them on the beaches, drown them in the sea, poison them on the roads by giving them something poisoned to eat, break their skull with a stone, or suffocate them with a pillow in the room.” | Westerners and Israelis, the group suggested, were ideal targets. “You should hunt them everywhere, especially the French, the Americans, the British and the Israelis,” the message said. “Lure them in roads, lodges, dance clubs and bars. Slaughter them on the beaches, drown them in the sea, poison them on the roads by giving them something poisoned to eat, break their skull with a stone, or suffocate them with a pillow in the room.” |
| Many of the tourists who were visiting the museum at the time of the attack were cruise-ship passengers. Costa Cruises, one of two companies whose ships were docked near Tunis on Wednesday, said on Thursday that it will cancel all future stops at Tunisian ports indefinitely, dealing a substantial blow to Tunisia’s tourism industry. | |
| “The security of guests and crew is the priority for Costa Crociere, and it’s a necessary condition to offer serene and pleasant holidays,” the company said in a statement, using the Italian version of its name. It added that Tunisian ports “will be replaced by alternative stops, which are being defined.” | “The security of guests and crew is the priority for Costa Crociere, and it’s a necessary condition to offer serene and pleasant holidays,” the company said in a statement, using the Italian version of its name. It added that Tunisian ports “will be replaced by alternative stops, which are being defined.” |
| A spokeswoman for MSC Cruises, the other company that had a ship in Tunis on Wednesday, said it was weighing a similar decision. | A spokeswoman for MSC Cruises, the other company that had a ship in Tunis on Wednesday, said it was weighing a similar decision. |