IS group claims fatal stabbing of Tunisian security official

The IS group said its "fighters" carried out the attack Sunday in the Tunisian coastal city of Sousse, in a statement posted by its propaganda arm Amaq on the Telegram messenger service.

The claim came as Tunisian authorities said they arrested seven people suspected of links to Sunday’s deadly attack in a tourist district in Sousse.

National guard spokesman Housameddine Jbabli on Monday told Radio Shems that seven suspects are being held by anti-terrorism authorities.

On Sunday, Tunisian forces fatally shot three alleged attackers. Among the seven detained is the wife of one of the dead attackers and two brothers of another. Jbabli said a preliminary investigation showed that the attackers had developed online links with foreign networks to find out how to make explosives.

Sousse was the site of Tunisia’s deadliest extremist attack in 2015, when a massacre killed 38 people, most of them British tourists. That attack dealt a heavy blow to Tunisia’s tourism sector, a pillar of the North African nation's economy.

Series of attacks

Tunisia, since its 2011 popular revolution, has been hit by a string of jihadist attacks that have killed dozens of security personnel, civilians and foreign tourists.

A suicide attack against security forces protecting the US embassy in Tunis killed a Tunisian police officer and left several others wounded in March.

Three major deadly attacks claimed by the IS group rocked the country in 2015.

An attack at the capital's Bardo museum in March killed 21 foreign tourists and a security guard. 

It was followed three months later with the shooting rampage at Sousse, which killed 38 tourists.

Then in November 2015, a bomb blast on a bus in central Tunis killed 12 presidential guards.

While the situation has significantly improved since then, Tunisia has maintained a state of emergency. Assaults on security forces have persisted, mainly in remote areas along the border with Algeria.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)