Photo Credit: DFID - UK Department for International Development
Migrants from Libya at a transit camp in Tunisia. Are terrorists among them?

Dozens of suspects are in custody following last week’s suicide bombing of a presidential guard bus in the Tunisian capital by Da’esh (ISIS), the Interior Ministry announced.

Among those arrested late last week were the mother and sister of the suicide bomber who murdered 12 people in the attack on the bus, which was parked at a central location where guards are typically picked up and dropped off.

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The body of the suicide bomber was subsequently found in the wreckage of the bus, where Da’esh said in a statement the terrorist detonated his explosive vest. The statement, uploaded to the Internet hours after the attack, included a photo of the alleged bomber and a message:

“Tyrants of Tunis must know that they will not be safe, God willing, and we will not stop until the law of God rules Tunis.”

There has been no comment on the statement from the government of the North African nation, nor could the statement be authenticated by any independent outlet.

Of all the Arab nations that have struggled with terrorism in the region since the Arab Spring – which was, ironically, launched in Tunisia with the start in 2011 of the Jasmine Revolution – Tunisia has worked the hardest. The country’s citizens elected a government which tries to maintain a pluralist society that still finds room for most faiths and ethnic groups, even its local Jews.

In acknowledgment of that, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee awarded this year’s prize to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for its “decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.”

That, despite the three deadly terror attacks carried out this year by Da’esh operatives (including last week’s) that killed dozens of tourists and locals in the country, and the government’s struggle to fight radicalization within its own borders.

The highest number of foreign fighters in Iraqi and Syrian Sunni terror organizations such as Da’esh originate from Tunisia, according to a report published this year by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence, CNN reported.

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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.