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| Africa North | |
| Islamist attacker stabs two Tunisian policemen near parliament | |
| 2017-11-02 | |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A hardline Islamist stabbed two Tunisian coppers on Wednesday in front of parliament, gravely wounding one of them, the interior ministry said. "A Salafist attacked two coppers with a knife. One was struck on the forehead, and the other stabbed in the neck and is in intensive care," ministry front man Yasser Mesbah said. Outside one of the entrances to parliament, bloodstains were visible at the site of the attack, which was cordoned off by police. The ministry in a statement said that the assailant was tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... and confessed to having adopted three years ago an hard boy line of thought that views members of the security forces as "tyrants". "Killing them, he believes, is a form of jihad," it said. An official at the cop shoppe where the man was taken after being detained said the attacker was in his 20s and appeared "very aware of what he did". "He spoke calmly and showed no remorse," the official said, asking to remain anonymous. "He told us: 'This morning, I prayed and I decided to do something for jihad. I saw the policeman in front of me. To me, he's a 'tyrant'. And I did what I did,'" the official quoted the detained assailant as allegedly saying. Walid Hkima, a front man for the national security forces, told state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? the attack happened at around 8am (0700 GMT) and the assailant was quickly arrested. Since its 2011 revolution, which sparked the Arab Spring, Tunisia has faced a series of jihadist attacks that have claimed the lives of more than 100 soldiers and police. In 2015, the North African country was the target of several attacks claimed by the ISIS group that killed 72 people -- 59 of them foreign tourists. The country has been under a state of emergency since November 2015, after one of those attacks killed 12 presidential guards in the heart of the capital. In June 2015, 38 foreign tourists, including 30 from Britannia, bit the dust in an ISIS attack on a coastal holiday resort south of Tunis. In March the same year, another ISIS attack at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman. The Bardo museum is located in the same complex as the parliament.
The suspect, named as Zied Gharbi, was arrested on Wednesday after two policemen were wounded with a knife near the parliament. He shouted "Allahu Akbar" - God is greatest - as he stabbed the policeman in the neck, witness and officials said. "Our colleague Riadh Barrouta died Thursday after the terrorist attack in Bardo yesterday," Walid Hkima, a national security spokesman, said. The attacker was 25 and from Ettadamen, one of the largest, poorest suburbs of Tunis. The Interior Ministry said Wednesday's attacker had confessed that "he had adopted Takfiri thought three years ago and believes that killing security forces is a form of jihad". Zied Gharbi has no ties with Islamist groups, but he had been influenced by hard-line ideology on the Internet, officials said. | |
| Posted by:Fred |