Tunisian security forces on Wednesday arrested five Salafist
"terrorists" with links to two failed attacks in coastal resort
towns, the first suicide bids in the country for more than a decade.
The presidency insisted the attacks,
which have yet to be claimed, would not "derail" the country's
democratic transition.
The suicide bomber struck early on
Wednesday at the four-star Riadh Palms hotel, in the resort town of Sousse, a
popular tourist destination 140km south of Tunis.
"A man blew himself up on a beach
in Sousse," ministry spokesperson Mohamed Ali Laroui told AFP, adding that
no one else was killed.
Within just half an hour, security
forces foiled another suicide attack by an 18-year-old man on the tomb of
former president Habib Bourguiba, in neighbouring Monastir, 20 kilometres along
the coast.
Tunisian special forces later arrested
"five terrorists with direct links to the assailants" in Sousse and
Monastir, the interior ministry said.
Ministry spokesperson Mohamed Ali
Laroui said those behind the attacks belonged to Ansar al-Sharia, Tunisia's
main Salafist movement, which the authorities have designated a "terrorist
organisation" with ties to al-Qaeda.
Since the 2011 revolution that toppled
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has been rocked by violence blamed on radical
Islamist groups suppressed under the former dictator, including the killings
this year of two opposition MPs.
But Wednesday's failed suicide bombings
are the first in Tunisia since 2002, when an attack claimed by al-Qaeda killed
21 people at the ancient Ghriba synagogue on the resort island of Djerba.
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