Tunisian Prime Minister Dismisses Six Police Commanders

On Monday, April 3, the Prime Minister of Tunisia dismissed six police commanders, including the head of security for foreign tourists. According to Reuters, these dismissals followed a terrorist attack last week at the Bardo Museum that resulted in the deaths of 20 foreign tourists. Moufdi Masadi, spokesperson for the Prime Minister's office, stated that the dismissed commanders included the head of a counter-espionage unit, the head of local police in Tunisia, the commander of highway police, the head of security at the Bardo Museum, and the commander of police in the Sidi Bouzid area of the capital. He added, "Habib Essid, the Prime Minister, visited the Bardo Museum yesterday and reviewed several security weaknesses." Armed assailants in the attack last Wednesday killed 20 foreign tourists from Japan, Poland, Italy, and Spain after they disembarked from a bus in front of the heavily secured Bardo Museum, located within the parliamentary complex. This attack is one of the deadliest events in Tunisia in over a decade and serves as a test for the country's nascent democracy, which is experiencing free elections four years after the ousting of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. According to Tunisian media, a museum police officer was arrested for leaving his post during the terrorist attack, but Tunisian officials have not confirmed these reports. The President of the Japanese Parliament arrived in Tunisia on Monday for discussions with the Tunisian Foreign Minister. Taieb Baccouche, the Tunisian Foreign Minister, expressed condolences to the families of the Japanese victims in front of the Japanese embassy in the capital. Foreign officials have been invited to participate in a Sunday march against terrorism, similar to the solidarity march in Paris following the Islamist militant attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine. Two of the armed attackers at the Bardo Museum were killed in a shootout with police, and Tunisian officials say they are searching for a third individual. So far, 20 people have been arrested, and officials state that ten of them have direct links to this terrorist attack. Some of these detainees have recently returned from the ranks of fighters associated with the so-called Islamic State in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. ISIS in Iraq and Syria claimed that their supporters were responsible for this terrorist attack. Meanwhile, a local group affiliated with al-Qaeda, known as "Akhbar Ibn Nafi," has also published details regarding this attack. Since the Arab Spring in Tunisia in 2011 and the reconciliation of secular and Islamist parties regarding free elections and the constitution, the country has been relatively free from violence. After the ousting of the single-party regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, radical Islamic groups have also gained power. Tunisian security forces have occasionally clashed with fighters from these groups who receive military training abroad. Tunisian officials stated that the armed individuals who attacked the Bardo Museum were from radical Muslims at a local mosque who had been sent for military training to jihadist camps in Libya. More than three thousand Tunisians have joined the ranks of fighters in Syria and Iraq, and hundreds of them have returned to Tunisia. In this context, the death toll from the attack on tourists in Tunisia has reached 21. The Security Council condemned the armed attack in Tunisia, and the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on tourists in Tunisia.