ISIS claims responsibility for Tunisia bus attack

Walid Louguini, a spokesmen for Tunisia’s Interior Ministry, told AP that at least 16 people were wounded in the attack. A suspected suicide bomber also died. Prime Minister Habib Essid and Interior Minister Najem Gharsalli visited the scene of the blast.

The bus was attacked while parked on a tree-lined avenue in the capital, Tunis, where guard members are normally picked up and dropped off, an official told the BBC. The bombing marked the third major terrorist event carried out on Tunisian soil this year.

The video in which the claim was made, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, claimed the young shepherd gave information on “the soldiers of the Islamic State” to the Tunisian army.

ISIS then claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released the following day, where they claimed that a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest.

The statement further said, the “tyrants of Tunis will not have peace and we will not rest until the law of God governs in Tunis”.

The members of the Council expressed their deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this heinous act and to the Government of Tunisia. CNN can not authenticate the ISIS claim.

A spokesman for the UN, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said, “The Secretary-General reiterates that the United Nations will continue to stand with the people of Tunisia as they confront the scourge of terrorism and continue to consolidate and strengthen their democracy”.

In a statement, Mr Essebsi, who was not near the site of the explosion, called the blast a “cowardly terrorist attack”. Tunisia’s new interim government held its first cabinet meeting, almost a week after President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country.

At least 13 people were killed and several injured after a bus transporting Presidential Guards exploded in front of a hotel.

After the blast Mr Essebsi ordered a 9pm to 5am curfew for Tunis and a state of emergency throughout the country, less than two months after a previous one had been lifted.

ISIS also claimed responsibility for both those attacks.

 Tunisia is believed to be one of the biggest exporters of jihadis to Iraq and Syria. By contrast, France had contributed the most foreign fighters of any Western country, with 1,200.

The attacks have cost the Tunisian tourist industry dearly.

The transport ministry announced that security would be reinforced in the country’s ports and that only passengers would be allowed to enter Tunis’s global airport.