ISIS Claims Responsibility for Tunisia Museum Attack, Massacre

ISIS apparently claimed responsibility Thursday for the deadly terrorist attack at a landmark museum in the heart of that country’s capital, a mass shooting that has shaken the birthplace of the Arab Spring and stirred questions about militants in the country.

In an audio statement posted online Thursday, ISIS identified two men — Abu Zakariya al-Tunisi and Abu Anas al-Tunisi — it said used “automatic weapons and hand grenades” to kill and injure what it called “crusaders and apostates” in the Bardo Museum in Tunis. Tunisian Health Minister Said Aidi said 23 people are believed to have been killed, including at least one who died at a hospital overnight.

And that bloodshed, the ISIS message warned, is “just the start” . . .

A U.S. official told CNN there is no reason to doubt the claim’s authenticity. That said, American officials are checking the platform that the statement went out on, including the extent to which it’s tied to the group calling itself the Islamic State.

The current U.S. thinking is the attack may have been carried out by local “franchise” adherents to ISIS, rather than centrally directed by the Islamist extremist group’s leadership, which is now thought to be in Syria. (Read more from “ISIS Apparently Claims Responsibility for Tunisia Museum Attack” HERE)

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