Tunisia rocked by 2 bombings, president’s crisis
ISTANBUL — Suicide bombers carried out two separate attacks on security forces in Tunisia’s capital early Thursday, killing one police officer and injuring at least seven other people, Tunisia’s Interior Ministry said.
The bombings occurred in rapid succession and shattered a sense of relative calm in Tunis, which had gone eight months without a major militant attack. The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks later on Thursday, saying they were carried out by two of the group’s “fighters,” according to a message distributed on social media accounts affiliated with the group.
Separately, Tunisia’s 92year-old president, Beji Caid Essebsi, was hospitalized on Thursday after what his office said was a “severe health crisis.” Officials did not disclose the nature of his illness but sought to tamp down rumors throughout the day that Essebsi had died, on a day already filled with anxiety.
Essebsi, a veteran political figure, became Tunisia’s first freely-elected leader in 2014, after a pro-democracy uprising ended the 23-year dictatorship of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Militant groups, including the Islamic State, have carried out periodic deadly attacks, threatening tourism, a cornerstone of Tunisia’s economy.
On Thursday, the first explosion occurred shortly before 11 a.m., when a bomber approached a security patrol on Charles de Gaulle Street near the French Embassy in central Tunis. A police officer was killed. Ten minutes later, another bomber detonated explosives at a security installation in the Qarajani district, the Interior Ministry said.
At least three civilians and several other officers were also injured in the blasts, according to the ministry. Video purporting to depict one of the attacks showed a group of police officers surrounding a wounded colleague, who appeared to be bleeding from the head.
In 2015, large-scale militant attacks on tourists killed at least 60 people and helped plunge the country into recession.