15 dead in blast on bus with Tunisia guard members

According to the reporters, not less than 12 people had lost their lives when an explosion hit a bus carrying members of Tunisia’s presidential guard in the country’s capital on Tuesday.

Tunisia has experienced several terrorist attacks this year and the bombing of presidential guard bus using 10 kilos of explosives in either a vest or a rucksack was an unprecedented attack that compelled Tunisian authorities to declare state of emergency.

Interior Ministry spokesman Walid Louguini told The Associated Press that at least 13 were killed and 20 wounded in the attack.

In response to the blast, The New York Times reported that the government has declared a state of emergency, which temporarily closed down the airport and tourist sites, and imposed a curfew as well.

In a statement posted on social media on Wednesday, Islamic State identified the bomber by the nickname Abu Abdullah Al Tunsi, or Abu Abdullah the Tunisian.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombing in a busy area in the heart of Tunis, a few hundred metres (yards) from the interior ministry, which came as the 26th Carthage Film Festival was in full swing.

According to recent reports, it seems like the country will proceed to close its borders with Libya for a total of 15 days, and hire over 6,000 more recruits for the security forces, to protect Tunisians throughout the country from any further possible attacks. In October 2013 a bomber blew himself up on a beach in Sousse, and previously an al Qaeda suicide bomber attacked the synagogue in Djerba, killing 21 people.

Tunisia is the lone country that, after the Arab Spring uprisings, established a genuine democratic transition by adopting a new Constitution in 2013 and holding its first national presidential elections in 2014.

Arrests of suspected jihadists are made on a weekly basis and thousands of Tunisians are fighting in neighbouring Libya, as well as in Iraq and Syria on the side of IS.

Tunisia has been attacked twice before by jihadis in the past year.

Tunisia has seen a surge in terrorist attacks that has raised fears for the future of this North African nation of 11 million people.

“Our people expect more”, leftist lawmaker Ahmed Seddik said in parliament.

The UN Security Council “stressed that no terrorist attack can reverse the path of Tunisia towards democracy and its efforts towards economic recovery and development”.