Bomber hits Tunisia resort

TUNIS: A man blew himself up Wednesday in front of a popular seaside hotel as authorities foiled a possibly related assault at the mausoleum of modern Tunisia’s secular founder, the Interior Ministry said. The attack was believed to be the country’s first suicide bombing.
Witnesses told Tunisian media that the suicide bomber appeared to be about to enter the Riadh Palm hotel in Sousse, about 150 km south of the capital, Tunis, when he exploded. The Interior Ministry said that no one else was injured and no property was damaged. It said the bomber was a Tunisian man wearing an explosive belt.
The city is being searched for possible accomplices, said ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui.
In the foiled attack on the mausoleum in nearby Monastir, an 18-year-old man followed a group of tourists into the mausoleum of modern Tunisia’s founder, Habib Bourguiba, carrying a backpack full of TNT. He attempted to distract security by tossing a firework before being subdued, said Hicham Gharbi, spokesman for the presidential guard, which patrols the site.
“He will be questioned to learn his motives and those who ordered the attack,” he told local radio. Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first post-independence president, was a fierce secularist and has long been hated by hard-liners.
While the ministry said both men belonged to the same extremist group, it is not certain that the attacks were coordinated or masterminded by one large organization. A shift in tactics by Tunisia’s extremists to the mass targeting of civilians would have serious implications for a country struggling with its democratic transition.