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TUNIS: Suicide attackers struck outside the US embassy in the Tunisian capital on Friday, killing a police officer, wounding six other people and once again shaking a city repeatedly hit by jihadist violence.
The latest attack comes despite a state of emergency imposed in the North African nation in 2015 following a string of bloody assaults claimed by the miltant Islamic State group.
An explosion at around midday rocked the Berges du Lac district, where the highly fortified embassy is located, causing panic among pedestrians and motorists.
“Two individuals targeted a security patrol in the street leading to the American embassy,” the interior ministry said in a statement. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The two attackers died and one officer, identified as 52-year-old father of three Lieutenant Taoufik Mohammed El Nissaoui, died of his wounds.
Five more injured officers and a lightly wounded female civilian were in a stable state, Interior Minister Hichem Mechichi told journalists.
“It was a homemade explosive device and we are looking for those who helped make it,” he said.
Local media reported police raids on two working-class neighbourhoods in northern Tunis.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened an enquiry, spokesman Sofiene Sliti said, but no arrests had yet been made and the two attackers have not been officially identified. “All security units are on high alert,” the interior ministry said.
After Friday’s blast, police dispatched reinforcements and forensic experts to the area, where body parts were strewn across the ground.
A helicopter buzzed over the Berges du Lac, a district protected round-the-clock by security forces.
“It’s tough to have to go on working when your colleagues have been wounded,” said a police officer at the scene. Office worker Haykel Boukraa spoke of widespread panic.
“Our office is 300 metres from (the blast scene), but the explosion was so loud that the windows in our building shook,” the 49-year-old said.