(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi declared a nationwide state of emergency and curfew in Tunis after a deadly bomb attack yesterday on a presidential guard bus in the capital.
"As a result of this painful event, this great tragedy... I proclaim a state of emergency for 30 days under the terms of law, and a curfew in greater Tunis from 9pm until 5am tomorrow," he said in a televised address.
At least 12 people were killed after an explosion tore through the bus full of presidential guards in an attack one source said was probably carried out by a bomber detonating his explosives in the vehicle.
Ambulances rushed wounded from the scene and security forces closed off streets around Mohamed V Avenue, one of the major streets in the capital Tunis and where the charred wreckage of the bus lay not far from the interior ministry.
It is the third major attack to strike Tunisia this year after a militant killed 38 foreigners at a beach hotel in June and gunmen killed 21 tourists at the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March. Islamic State claimed both those attacks.
Security sources said the guards were boarding the bus to be taken to the presidential place on the outskirts of the city when the explosion hit. One presidential source said it was likely that a bomber had detonated his explosive belt inside.
"I was on Mohamed V, just getting ready to get into my car, when there was a huge explosion. I saw the bus blow up. There were bodies and blood everywhere," said Bassem Trifi, a witness.
At least 12 guards were killed and 17 wounded, according to an interior ministry statement.
Essebsi cancelled a trip to Europe he had planned for today.
Mohamed V is a major boulevard usually packed with traffic and pedestrians, and the site of several hotels and banks.
Fighting Islamist militants has become a major challenge for Tunisia, the country that was hailed as a blueprint for democratic change in the region after an uprising in 2011 ousted autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Tunisia has had free elections and is operating under a new constitution and a broad political consensus that has allowed secular and Islamist parties to overcome a crisis that threatens to overturn their young democracy.
But several thousand Tunisians have also left to fight in Syria, Iraq and Libya with IS and other militant groups, and some have threatened to carry out attacks at home.
The army has also been fighting against another Islamist militant group in the mountains near the Algerian border. Militants have hit checkpoints and patrols in rural areas in the past.
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