The highly renowned Bardo Museum in the capital city of the African nation of Tunisia is the scene of mayhem due to a terror attack taking place a short while ago.
Three men, dressed in military-styled garb stormed the historic museum earlier this morning while it was packed to the brim with tourists and citizens. The Bardo Museum, beloved for its vast collection of national artifacts as well as a sizable collection of Roman antiquities, is directly located next to the national Parliament. Shots rang out as the gunmen entered the museum, presumably from the parliament building. It has been reputed that 100 visitors were inside the Bardo at the time of their entry, but most were swiftly evacuated from the premises as the calamity unfolded. The assailants then proceeded to take hostages, prompting the Tunisian security forces to storm the museum complex. The ensuing battle raged until a few minutes ago, leading to two of the three gunmen being killed by the security forces and one purportedly captured. Reports from the scene state that so far, there are eleven people dead. That tally was estimated to include seven foreign tourists present in the museum at the time. A security officer was also killed as the raid took place. It is believed that the gunmen had held up to 20 hostages during the siege.
This terror attack comes a day after the Tunisian government made an announcement of a giant seizure of weaponry from Jihadist groups in the country. While there has been no officially established link between this move and the Bardo terror attack, there have been reports of pro-ISIS social media accounts lauding the incident as it took place in real-time. Foreign embassies rushed to protect their citizens in Tunisia as the attack unfolded, with the British Embassy notifying followers on Twitter of the breaking news for example. This attack is a jolt to Tunisia, which is regarded as the cradle of the Arab Spring movement due to the popular revolution deposing the previous dictatorship in 2011. Since then, the country’s been struggling with extreme Islamic fundamentalists looking to take control. Tunisian President Beji Caid Ebessi is expected to make a statement shortly.
