The two gunmen who killed 21 people at a museum in Tunis trained in neighbouring Libya before carrying out the deadly attack and were known to authorities, Tunisian security officials said today.
The attack at the National Bardo Museum Wednesday has raised concerns about the spread of extremism in North Africa and particularly in Tunisia -- the only country to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with a functioning democracy.
In the country's capital Tunis, hundreds citizens today thronged the main avenue where demonstrators overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali four years ago, celebrating independence day in defiance of the attacks that left 17 cruise ship tourists dead.
Some danced draped in Tunisian flags and others held aloft hand-written signs that read "JeSuisBardo" for "I am Bardo," a slogan that has captured attention as an anti-terrorism rallying cry on social media.
"We are here to say 'no' to terrorism," said Astal Marwen, a 19-year-old political science and law student, at the rally.
"The attackers are part of a small minority, and they have the wrong conception of what Islam is."
The attackers slipped out of the country in December and received weapons training in Libya which is awash in well-armed militias fighting for control, said Rafik Chelli, a top official in the Interior Ministry in a TV interview late yesterday.
One of them, Hatem Khachnaoui, 26, was from the central city of Sbeitla and had previously been arrested on terrorism charges before being released, according to Sabhi Jouini, a leading figure in the police union and a terrorism expert.
Sbeitla, home to some splendid Roman ruins, is in an impoverished region not far from the Algerian border where an al-Qaeda-linked Tunisian group has carried out several attacks.
Khachnaoui's father and sister in Sbeitla were arrested yesterday along with two others from the region on suspicion of supporting the attackers. Another five people with direct connection to the attack were picked up around the capital.
Khachnaoui's associate, Yassine Laabidi was only 20 years old and had less of a record with police, though he is known to have worked in a travel agency and hails from the working class Tunis neighbourhood of Ibn Khaldun.
The Islamic State group, based in Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the Bardo attack. Several well-armed groups in Libya have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State.
