ISIS Tunisia

The ISIS insurgency in Tunisia refers to the ongoing militant and terror activity of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant branch in Tunisia. The activity of ISIL in Tunisia began in summer 2015, with the Sousse attacks, though an earlier terror incident in Bardo Museum in March 2015 was claimed the Islamic State, while the Tunisian government blamed Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade. Following massive border clashes near Ben Guerdance in March 2016, the activity of the ISIS group was described as armed insurgency, switching from previous tactics of sporadic suicide attacks to attempts to gain territorial control.

18 March 2015 – Bardo National Museum attack, Three militants attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis, and took hostages. Twenty-one people, mostly European tourists, were killed at the scene, while an additional victim died ten days later. Around fifty others were injured. Two of the gunmen, Tunisian citizens Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, were killed by police, while the third attacker is currently at large. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack, and threatened to commit further attacks. However, the Tunisian government blamed a local splinter group of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, called the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, for the attack. A police raid killed nine members on 28 March.

Campaign of violence:
2015:
-26 June – 2015 Sousse attacks, An Islamist mass shooting attack occurred at the tourist resort at Port El Kantaoui, about 10 kilometres north of the city of Sousse, Tunisia. Thirty-eight people, thirty of whom were British, were killed when an armed gunman attacked a hotel. It was the deadliest non-state attack in the history of modern Tunisia, with more fatalities than the twenty-two killed in the Bardo National Museum attack three months before.
-24 November – 2015 Tunis bombing, A bus carrying Tunisian presidential guards exploded, killing 12, on a principal road in Tunis, Tunisia. ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber, who also died in the attack, was identified as Houssem Abdelli.

2016:
-7–9 March – 2016 Ben Guerdane attack, Was an armed attack on 7 March 2016 in the city of Ben Gardane in Tunisia on the border with Libya. The clashes continued also on 8 and 9 of March in the area. The final death toll was 45 militants, 13 security and 7 civilians.
-19 March – 2 militants were killed on Libyan border, near to the site of the Ben Guerdane attack, while three civilians and a Tunisian security forces member were wounded.
-30 March – 4 Tunisian troops were reported killed in an ambush by ISIS affiliates in Kasserine.
-11 May – Four police men were killed by ISIS attack, with the suicide bomber dying as well. This followed the death of two suspected terrorists near Tunisia.
-26 October – Two Americans were detained by the authorities in Jendouba (northwestern Tunisia), being suspected of involvement with a terrorist organization.
-5 November – Militants killed the soldier at his home in the central region. A day later, ISIS claimed responsibility for the killing.
-9 November – The Tunisian Army hunted down and shot dead a leader of a militant group affiliated with ISIS militants, this comes four days after the militant group killed a soldier at his house in central Tunisia.

2017:
-12 March – A police officer and two militants were killed in a shootout at a checkpoint in southern Tunisia that left three other officers injured.
-2-3 June – A unit of the National Army discovered the body of the shepherd Khelifa Soltani on Saturday afternoon, on Mount Mghila. He had been kidnapped on Friday by a group of terrorists with another shepherd who hasn’t been found yet.
-8 June – A mine exploded at Jebel Mghila (Sidi Bouzid), during a sweep operation, killing 1 soldier and wounding another one.
-16 June – A woman was injured when an IED went off near Mont Salloum in the Kasserine Governorate.
-22 August – An IED blast wounded two soldiers on patrol.
-1 November – A suspected Islamist stabbed two police officers near Tunisia‘s parliament, killing one and injuring another one.