Bardo National Museum Shooting (2015)

The Bardo National Museum shooting was a terrorist attack committed at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, Tunisia, in March 2015. Three gunmen entered the museum, killing twenty-two employees and tourists and injuring more than fifty others. The international terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack, though Tunisian authorities believe the shooting was organized by members of a local terrorist group in Tunisia.

Date: On March 18, 2015, three armed individuals killed twenty-two and injured more than fifty in a shooting that occurred at the Bardo National Museum.

Place: Tunis, Tunisia

Key Events

• December 2010-Tunisian Revolution begins with a series of demonstrations against the presidency of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
• January 2011-Ben Ali forced to flee to Saudi Arabia, and a secular transitional government is established.
• March 18, 2015-Three individuals dressed in military clothing approach the Bardo National Museum armed with assault rifles and begin shooting museum visitors outside and then inside the building. Two of the attackers are killed while a third escapes.
• March 20, 2015-Terrorist group ISIS issues an audio statement claiming responsibility for the Bardo Museum attack.
• March 22, 2015-Official police statements indicate that a third perpetrator is at large after the attack.
• March 28, 2015-Tunisian police kill Lokman Abu Sakhr, an Algerian citizen believed to have organized the Bardo Museum attack.
• May 19, 2015-Italian police arrest a Moroccan man, Abdelmajid Touil, allegedly connected to the Bardo Museum attack. Courts later refuse to grant extradition due to Tunisia's use of the death penalty.
• May 24, 2015-Tunisian police arrest a second Moroccan man, Noureddine al-Naibi, in connection with the Bardo Museum attack.
• June 26, 2015-A gunman opens fire at tourists in Port El Kantaoui, resulting in the death of thirty-eight foreign citizens.
• October 28, 2015-Italian authorities release Touil due to mitigating evidence.

Status

As of October 2015, it was uncertain whether Tunisian authorities had captured the third shooter involved in the Bardo National Museum attack. The Bardo incident, and the subsequent Port El Kantaoui shootings in June 2015, were seen as aimed at disrupting Tunisia's tourism industry, which constitutes more than 14 percent of the nation's annual revenues. Tunisian terrorist incidents in 2015 convinced several European nations to warn travelers against visiting Tunisia for recreation.

In-Depth Overview

The Tunisian Revolution (also known as the Jasmine Revolution), in 2010 and 2011, was a series of popular uprisings against the presidential regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, a former military leader who had served as Tunisia's president beginning in 1989. Unemployment and police violence were among the primary issues motivating the uprising. In the wake of the revolution and the formation of a new democratic government in 2014, terrorist violence was relatively scarce in Tunisia compared to other Arab Spring nations such as Libya and Syria; however, Tunisians have made up a large proportion of ISIS recruits.

In February 2015, Tunisian officials conducted a major raid on suspected terrorist groups, seizing weapons and equipment allegedly to be used in future terrorist attacks. In addition, Tunisian terrorist Ahmed al-Rouissi, known to be involved with the terrorist group ISIS, was killed in Libya.

On March 18, around 12:30 p.m., three gunmen approached the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, the national capital, dressed in full military uniforms. The three men opened fire on tourists leaving a tour bus in front of the museum and then entered the museum, where they held other visitors hostage. After police arrived, there was a standoff that lasted for at least two hours before two of the gunmen were killed by police. A third individual reportedly involved in the attack fled the scene and escaped police pursuit. The siege ended around 2:30 p.m. local time. The Tunisian government identified the slain gunmen as Tunisians Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui.

There was some difficulty identifying victims in the attack, as many were international tourists. It was eventually discovered that tourists from Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, and Spain were among the casualties, along with four Tunisians. Authorities eventually identified twenty-two individuals killed, including a police officer responding to the attack, and not including the two terrorists. (Twenty-one individuals died that day, and a French woman later died of her injuries.) A UNESCO investigation found that none of the Bardo Museum's collection had been damaged or destroyed in the incident.

Immediately after the attack, an audio message from ISIS was released claiming responsibility for the attack. However, Tunisian authorities believe that the attack came from a local terrorist group, the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, that split off from al-Qaeda and had been active in the region. On March 29, antiterrorist protestors gathered in front of the Bardo Museum bearing signs with slogans such as, "Je Suis Tunisie," or, "I Am Tunisia." In late March, Tunisian security forces located and killed Algerian Lokman Abu Sakhr, a jihadist they believed was involved in planning the Bardo Museum shooting.

On May 20, a twenty-two-year-old Moroccan citizen, Abdelmajid Touil, was arrested in Gaggiano, Italy, in connection with the attack. Italian police refused extradition due to Tunisia's use of the death penalty. Touil was later released when an Italian investigation indicated that Touil was unlikely to have been involved in the incident. On May 22, 2015, Tunisian police arrested another Moroccan national, Noureddine al-Naibi, in connection with the attack.

On June 26, another terrorist incident occurred at the Port El Kantaoui resort community, near the city of Sousse, where a lone gunman killed thirty-eight tourists visiting the hotels near the resort. In the wake of the incident, several European nations advised citizens against further tourist travel to Tunisia. In July, the Tunisian government announced that several high-ranking police officers and other officials had been forced to resign due to the alleged failure of the police to efficiently address the Port El Kantaoui incident. In late July, the Tunisian government began debating new antiterrorism legislation that would allow death sentences for offenders and would give law enforcement the ability to conduct more extensive surveillance operations.

Key Figures

Saber Khachnaoui: One of the two gunmen killed in the attack; a resident of the Tunisian city of Kasserine.

Yassine Labidi: A Tunis resident and one of the two gunmen killed in the attack.

Noureddine al-Naibi: Moroccan citizen arrested in Tunisia, allegedly involved in the Bardo National Museum shootings.

Lokman Abu Sakhr: Algerian jihadist militant believed to have played a role in organizing the Bardo National Museum attack; killed by Tunisian security forces in the central Gafsa region of Tunisia.

Bibliography

Darke, D. (2015, June 26). Tunisia: "Lessons were not learnt from Bardo museum attack." Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/11701610/Tunisia-lessons-were-not-learnt-from-Bardo-museum-attack.html

Kirkpatrick, D. D. (2015, March 18). Tunisia museum attack is blow to nation's democratic shift. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/world/africa/gunmen-attack-tunis-bardo-national-museum.html

Reynolds, J. (2015, May 21). Tunisia Bardo attack: Italy alarmed by migrant arrest. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32824848

Tunis attack: Gunmen kill tourists in museum rampage. (2015, March 18). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-31941672