Tunisians brace for long terror fight after museum attack
In a sign of how far-reaching and perhaps long-term the aftermath of the terror attack on a museum in the Tunisian capital is going to be, the government has asked citizens to be patient with searches and checkpoints that are being instituted nationwide.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the attack that killed more than 20 people but analysts suggest it was more likely that the gunmen were inspired rather than directed by ISIS or other fundamentalist groups, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.
Several thousand young Tunisians are thought to be fighting with ISIS and, as in the U.S. and Europe, there are fears they may come home armed with violent skills and radical ideology.
Human rights activist Abdelbasset Ben Hassen said it's a very dangerous situation.
"I think that we need a real strategy, [a] national strategy based on developing our security system," Hassen said.
Tunisian officials have acknowledged that their security system needs overhauling, a point underscored by the funeral of one of the two guards killed in the attack.
Tunisian Minister of Culture Latifa Lakhdar derided the attackers as ignorant.
"They are targeting knowledge, they are targeting science, they are targeting reason, they are targeting history," Lakhdar said. "They are targeting memory because all these things mean nothing in their eyes."
In the meantime, Tunisians are fighting back by simply getting on with their lives, but the danger can be everywhere.
A senior Tunisian official told a local media outlet that the two gunmen left the country illegally last December and went to Libya for weapons training.