At least 20 people have been killed in Tunisia after two gunmen stormed the Bardo National Museum – one of the country’s leading tourist attractions in the capital, Tunis – sparking a three-hour siege and hostage situation.
Tunisia’s prime minister, Habib Essid, said on Wednesday that 17 of the dead were foreigners, five from Japan, four from Italy, two from Colombia, two from Spain, and one each from Australia, Poland and France. The nationality of one was not released after an attack he described as a cowardly assault targeting the economy. He said police were searching for two or three of the attackers who remained at large.
Essid said two Tunisian nationals also were killed by the militants. At least 44 people were wounded, including 13 Italians, seven French, four Japanese, two South Africans, one Pole, one Russian and six Tunisians. He did not provide any information regarding the nationalities of the other wounded.
Two Britons were “caught up in” the shootings, the UK Foreign Office said.
“I want the people of Tunisia to understand firstly and lastly that we are in a war with terror, and these savage minority groups will not frighten us,” said newly elected president Beji Caid Essebsi in an evening address to the nation. “The fight against them will continue until they are exterminated.”
Three hours after the attack started at about midday local time (1100 GMT), an interior ministry spokesman said two gunmen had been killed, as well as one security officer, and that all hostages had been freed.
Poland’s foreign ministry said that three Poles were among the six wounded. Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, said two Spaniards died in the attack. He told El País that they were a retired couple from Catalonia who had arrived in Tunis on a cruise. About 90 Spaniards from two cruises were in Tunis on Wednesday.
The first Italian victim to be named was Francesco Caldara, a 64-year-old pensioner from the northern Italian city of Novara, according to La Stampa. It reported that Caldara was killed in a spray of bullets while he sat on a bus that had been parked outside the Bardo museum.
He was visiting Tunis as part of a Costa cruise, which was touring the Mediterranean for seven days. His partner, Sonia Reddi, was also wounded in the attack and both were taken to hospital, where Caldara died.
“Sonia called me at 12:30. She was crying and desperate,” Reddi’s sister Wanda told the Italian newspaper Il Venerdì. “She told me that she was injured in her arm but that she feared that Francesco was dead. She called back at one o’clock and talked to my daughter Milena. She was in shock and said her partner had been seriously injured.”
Reddi said the call then ended. The couple had left Italy on Sunday, according to Reddi’s family. They were on holiday to celebrate Reddi’s birthday. Their next destination was supposed to be Mallorca.
A single muffled detonation signalled the end of the siege, with reports filtering through to crowds gathered outside the gates in the bright sunshine that the attackers were dead.
White ambulances with lights flashing drove in a slow convoy inside the gardens of the palace grounds. Minutes later police pushed open the big iron entrance gates, and black armoured vehicles of the special forces – their task seemingly complete – came out, inching through the thick crowds outside.
The spectators burst into cheering and applause and a black-clad helmeted soldier peering from the turret of one vehicle punched the air with both fists in response.
More than 100 European tourists freed at the end of the siege were driven out of the museum gates, their faces showing a mixture of anxiety and relief. The tourists – men and women, young and old – stared into space, some smiling at the crowds. One young woman inside the first bus grinned and waved her hand. Dozens of armed police and troops remained inside the museum complex sealed off from the city.
Relief that the siege was over was mixed with dismay among those watching. “This is a black day for Tunisia,” said Karim Ben Sa’a, a manager in the tourism industry. “We are very sad for these tourists. They visit our country and it is so, so, sad to see them die. Our hearts are black.”
Elsewhere in Tunis there was shock and dismay that terrorists had managed to launch an attack at the very heart of the capital, at a museum that shares the Bardo palace complex with the national parliament. Police set up checkpoints and a policeman with a machine gun was posted outside the office of the British Council.
During the hostage crisis, black-clad police snipers were on the rooftops and bastions of the ancient Bardo castle, which forms part of the complex housing the museum.
A helicopter thundered low overhead making circles over the museum. Several hundred people gathered outside the gates of the complex, as the air echoed to the sirens of police cars and ambulances.
The attack came a day after Tunisia announced a major seizure of weapons from jihadi groups, triggering speculation that the museum attack may have been launched in revenge.
In a defiant tweet one MP, Sayida Ounissi, said: “We are not afraid”, adding that Tunisia’s parliament had been evacuated.
The attack came days after the death of Ahmed Al-Rouissi, a Tunisian also known as Abu Zakariya Al-Tunisi, who led a contingent of Islamic State (Isis) fighters in Libya. He was killed in clashes with Libyan troops near the town of Sirte, a stronghold of followers of Muammar Gaddafi, the late Libyan strongman.
Tunisian commentators speculated there may be a connection between his death and Wednesday’s deadly attack, which could badly damage tourism, on which the country relies heavily.
Pro-Isis Twitter accounts hailed the attack as “ghazwat Tunis” or the “raid of Tunis” (ghazwa is the description given to the early Islamic battles) and have cheered on the attackers. A purported Isis video from last December threatened attacks on Tunisia.
Last month, Tunisia arrested more than 30 suspected militants – some of whom returning from fighting in Syria – who were planning attacks, officials said at the time. Interior ministry officials said counter-terrorism forces had prevented attacks against vital installations, including the interior ministry and civilian buildings in Tunis.
Nous n'avons pas peur. We are not afraid. مناش خائفين #TnArp #Bardo #Tounes
— Sayida Ounissi (@SaidaOunissi) March 18, 2015
The assault on the museum poses an early and severe challenge for the new secular-Islamist coalition cabinet, which took office last month. It already faces the problem of a proliferation of armed groups that emerged after the 2011 uprising that overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Essebsi said measures were being taken to prevent further attacks.
“The authorities have taken all measures to ensure that such things don’t happen again,” Essebsi told Agence France-Presse as he visited victims of the attack in a Tunis hospital.
Philip Stack, of British risk-analyst Maplecroft, said: “This attack is certain to have an effect on the tourism industry which the authorities have worked hard to rebuild after the 2011 revolution. The principal targets of terrorism in Tunisia in the last couple of years have been the security forces. By targeting foreign tourists at a prestigious city centre site, the terrorists have changed their tactics and raised the stakes.”
The Bardo killings come amid mounting anxiety that jihadi violence is spilling over Tunisia’s border from neighbouring Libya. Troops are deployed on the Libyan border to interdict what the authorities believe are terrorist groups bringing in men and equipment.
Tunisia has seen the democratic revolution of 2011 bear fruit, celebrating trouble-free national elections held in December. But the country has also seen thousands of young men head to Syria and Libya to join Isis units, triggering fears some will return to mount attacks back home.
Tunisia is a major source of fighters travelling to Syria, with the number of Tunisians fighting there estimated at about 3,000. A few hundred have returned to Tunisia and many have been tracked down and arrested.