ISIL insurgency in Tunisia

ISIL insurgency in Tunisia refers to the ongoing militant and terror activity of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant branch in Tunisia. The activity of ISIL in Tunisia began in summer 2015, with the Sousse attacks, though an earlier terror incident in Bardo Museum in March 2015 was claimed the Islamic State, while the Tunisian government blamed Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade. Following massive border clashes near Ben Guerdance in March 2016, the activity of the ISIL group was described as armed insurgency, switching from previous tactics of sporadic suicide attacks to attempts to gain territorial control.

Background

On 18 March 2015, three militants attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis, and took hostages. Twenty-one people, mostly European tourists, were killed at the scene, while an additional victim died ten days later. Around fifty others were injured. Two of the gunmen, Tunisian citizens Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, were killed by police, while the third attacker is currently at large. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack, and threatened to commit further attacks. However, the Tunisian government blamed a local splinter group of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, called the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, for the attack. A police raid killed nine members on 28 March.

Timeline

Sporadic incidents, 2015

On 26 June 2015, an Islamist mass shooting attack occurred at the tourist resort at Port El Kantaoui, about 10 kilometres north of the city of Sousse, Tunisia. Thirty-eight people, thirty of whom were British, were killed when an armed gunman attacked a hotel. It was the deadliest non-state attack in the history of modern Tunisia, with more fatalities than the twenty-two killed in the Bardo National Museum attack three months before.

On 24 November 2015, a bus carrying Tunisian presidential guards exploded, killing 12, on a principal road in Tunis, Tunisia. ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber, who also died in the attack, was identified as Houssem Abdelli.

Full-scale insurgency, 2016

2016 Ben Guerdane attack was an armed attack on March 7, 2016 in the city of Ben Gardane in Tunisia on the border with Libya. The clashes continued also on 8 and 9 of March in the area. The final death toll was 45 militants, 13 security and 7 civilians. On March 19, 2 militants were killed on Libyan border, near to the site of the Ben Guerdane attack, while three civilians and a Tunisian security forces member were wounded.

Om March 30, 4 Tunisian troops were reported killed in an ambush by ISIL affiliates in Kasserine.