Tunisia: Woman Blows Herself up Near Police Patrol

A 30-year old woman blew herself up on Monday near a police patrol in a busy avenue in Tunisia’s capital.

Twenty people were injured in the suicide bombing, 15 law enforcement agents and 5 civilians including two children, according to a latest report released by the spokesman of the Directorate General of National Security, Walid Hekima.

“It’s a primitive terrorist act that has failed,” he said.

No deaths have been reported and no group has so far claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

The bomber was not previously known to the security services. According to local media, the attacker was wearing a homemade bomb belt with a small quantity of explosives. The bomber’s body appeared largely intact after the explosion.
The suicide attack, which comes at a time when the country’s vital tourism industry is starting to show signs of recovery, happens more than three years after two deadly terror bombings in 2015.

The first, an attack on the capital’s Bardo Museum in March 2015, left 22 people dead. Just a few months later, in June, another 38 people were killed in a resort in Sousse.

Also in 2015, a suicide bomber killed 12 security agents on a bus for presidential guards, prompting Tunisia to decree a state of emergency that has been repeatedly extended. Earlier this month, the state of emergency was extended until November 6.