Gunmen kill 7 tourists and hold more hostage in Tunisia. Yahoo/Reuters

Security forces respond to the attack in Tunisia. Yahoo/AFP.

Terrorists have killed at least 7 tourists and are holding more hostage at the National Museum of Tunisia. Yahoo/Reuters. At least two gunmen were spotted at the Bardo Museum, which is a popular tourist destination. Tunisia has been largely free of Islamic terrorism since the overthrow of their government during the Arab Spring, in contrast to virtually every other government in the region, including Libya, Syria and Egypt. In addition to the 7 tourists at least one Tunisian has died as well. It is unclear what the nationalities of the 7 tourists are. Rome said that at least two Italians  had been wounded in the attack. It is unclear at this point who carried out the attack but Tunisia has had a very large problem with people traveling to join ISIS and other radical organizations. More then 3000 have joined these groups. 

My Comment:

This is very bad news for Tunisia, which has until now been largely peaceful since the Arab Spring. It seems fairly obvious that this is an Islamic terrorist attack. The fact that this was a major tourist destination, populated with at least some Europeans, tells me that they were the primary targets. The fact that it is happening at a museum tells me that the terrorists are probably more iconoclastic like ISIS is. It is hard to respect history when you think that history is blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. 

I've seen some photos on twitter that are supposedly from the museum. Some of the hostages may indeed be children. If that is the case then, well, what do you even say? That it is horrible? My hope is that these terrorists at least have enough human decency to release the kids. But given the track record for Islamic terrorism, I am not holding my breath. 

I'm wondering if this is another "Charlie Hebdo" style attack. It seems clear that the trend is for gunmen to attack instead of the old school suicide bombings. Not only are those kinds of attacks easier to pull off, they are also harder to defend against. It is possible that these attackers were inspired by the Charlie Hebdo attacks in terms of tactics and strategy. It is also possible that it is the same group, but it is too soon to know that. Either way this is a very distrubing trend because these kinds of attacks are cheap, hard to detect and hard to prevent. It's possible that sending a couple of guys in with rifles to shoot a bunch of people and then take hostages will be the go-to terrorist attack for the foreseeable future. 

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of other information at this point. I've seen some twitter chatter about hostages being rescued and the gunmen being killed but I don't consider twitter to be at all reliable. A few semi-releible sources, including RT are saying that there was another exchange of gunfire, so it is possible that this attack is over. Here's hoping that there weren't any other casualties besides the suspects.