A Tunisian National Guard officer was killed, while another was injured, on Sunday, in a terrorist attack in Tunisia’s coastal city of Sousse.
National Guard spokesperson Houcem Eddine Jebabli told the AFP news agency that a security patrol of two National Guard officers was attacked with knives in the centre of Sousse. He added that one of the officers died in the attack, while another was injured and now receives treatment.
However, the country’s Interior Ministry said that the National Guard officers were attacked by a vehicle that was driven by three terrorists. The ministry added, in a Sunday statement, that police chased the suspected assailants and exchanged fire with them. The attackers were killed in the incident.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) cited sources as saying that four attackers, who were riding a vehicle, stabbed two officers from the National Guard.
Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi told reporters that security forces later arrested an assailant suspected in Sunday’s terrorist attack.
The attack comes only days after Mechichi formally assumed office as Tunisia’s Prime Minister on Thursday.
President Kais Saied said, on Sunday, that these cowardly terrorist attacks are failed attempts aimed at destabilising Tunisia, and affirmed that military and security forces, as well as the Tunisian people, will confront these attempts.
Meanwhile, British Ambassador to Tunisia Louise de Sousa tweeted, “Appalled to hear of the attack on a National Guard patrol in Sousse this morning. My sincere condolences to the family of the murdered officer, and I wish a swift recovery to the injured.”
Tunisia has been rocked by terrorist attacks over the past few years. In March this year, two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the US embassy in the capital, Tunis, killing a police officer and injuring five security forces personnel.
In 2015, a bloody Islamic State (IS) attack on a beach in Sousse killed 39 people, and injuring others, mostly foreigners. Also in 2015, 13 people were killed in an attack that hit a bus carrying presidential guards in Tunisia’s capital, an attack for which IS claimed also responsibility.
Earlier in October 2018, a female suicide bomber blew herself up on Tunis’ Avenue Habib Bourguiba, wounding 20 people, including 10 police personnel.
