Suicide bombers hit Tunis, cop killed
TUNIS: Two militants on a motorbike blew themselves up outside the US Embassy in Tunisia on Friday, killing a policeman and injuring several others in the country’s most serious attack in months.
The explosion took place near the embassy’s main gate, where a journalist saw a scorched, damaged motorbike and a damaged police vehicle lying amid debris as police gathered around and a helicopter whirled overhead.
The Interior Ministry said two militants were killed carrying out the attack and five police officers were injured, while a civilian suffered minor injuries.
State news agency TAP reported that one policeman was killed.
“We heard a very powerful explosion ... we saw the remains of the terrorist lying on the ground after he went on the motorbike towards the police,” said Amira, a shopkeeper.
Sirens could be heard on the major highway linking the Lac district, where the embassy is located, with Tunis and suburbs in the north.
The US Embassy in a tweet urged people to avoid the area.
Roads around security installations were closed in some parts of the capital and some international institutions were put on lockdown or evacuated.
Photographs of the blast site posted on social media showed debris strewn around the area of a security checkpoint that controls access to the embassy, and damaged vehicles.
Last summer, Daesh said it was behind militant blasts that struck the capital over the course of a week, including one near the French Embassy that killed a policeman.
Tunisia’s critical tourism sector is highly vulnerable to militant incidents and was devastated after two major attacks in 2015 which killed scores of visitors at a beach resort and a popular museum.
Diplomats who have worked with Tunisia on
its security capacity say it has grown more effective in preventing and responding to militant attacks in recent years.
The US Embassy, located in a residential area on the outskirts of Tunis, was attacked in 2012 by crowds angered by an anti-muslim film produced in the United States.
Security forces killed four people during an attack in which the American flag was torn down and replaced with another flag.