World leaders joined tens of thousands of Tunisians on Sunday to march in solidarity against Islamist militants, a day after security forces killed members of a group blamed for a deadly museum attack.
The March 18 attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis killed 21 foreign tourists and a police officer, shaking a country that has been praised as a peaceful model of democracy since leading the first of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011.
A red-and-white sea of Tunisian flags filled a major boulevard in the capital, where several world leaders, including French President François Hollande, joined in the rally.
“We have shown we are a democratic people. Tunisians are moderate, and there is no room for terrorists here,” said Kamel Saad, one of the demonstrators. “Today, everyone is with us.”
Thousands of police officers and soldiers had been positioned around the capital since early morning.
Tunisia, one of the most secular countries in the Arab world, has mostly avoided violence in the four years since the toppling of autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. In contrast with Libya, Yemen and Syria, which have plunged into war and chaos, Tunisia has adopted a new constitution and held free elections.
But the Bardo massacre, which the government says was aimed at destroying Tunisia’s vital tourism industry, rocked the nation. Japanese, Polish, Spanish and Colombian visitors were among those killed in the attack.
“The Tunisian people will not bow,” President Beji Caid Essebsi said in a speech after the march. “We will stay united against terrorism until we wipe out this phenomenon.”
Prime Minister Habib Essid earlier told reporters that a raid in the southern Gafsa region had killed nine militants from the local group Okba Ibn Nafaa, including Algerian Lokman Abu Sakhr, suspected of orchestrating the museum attack.
“We have killed most of the leaders of Okba Ibn Nafaa who were behind many recent attacks,” Essid said. “This is a clear and strong response to terrorism after the Bardo attack.”
Although the Tunisian government has pointed the finger at Okba Ibn Nafaa, the Islamic State militant group has asserted responsibility for the attack.
Okba Ibn Nafaa was previously more allied with al-Qaeda but has recently made vague statements on its position toward the Islamic State, the al-Qaeda splinter group that controls large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The Tunis attack underscored how Islamist militant loyalties are blurring as the extremists seek a new front in North Africa.
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