TUNIS // Tunisia said it killed the leader of the militants accused of organising the massacre at its national museum, as thousands took to the streets on Sunday in a march against extremism.
Authorities said Lokmane Abou Sakhr, an Algerian believed to be the organiser of the March 18 museum attack, was killed in an overnight operation in the Gafsa region near the Algerian border along with at least eight others.
Officials had accused Abou Sakhr and his group of organising the attack on the Bardo Museum that killed 21 foreign tourists, despite a claim of responsibility from the ISIL group.
Tunisian forces “were able yesterday [Saturday] to kill the most important members of the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade including its head Lokmane Abou Sakhr,” prime minister Habib Essid said.
Interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui earlier said that security forces had killed “nine terrorists” in an operation in the west-central area of Sidi Aich against Okba Ibn Nafaa.
“We are very pleased ... the nine were among the most dangerous terrorists in Tunisia,” he said.
Authorities say Okba Ibn Nafaa has been behind a series of attacks on security forces that have killed some 60 people since late 2012.
Some 12,000 people set off on Sunday for the march “against terrorism” in Tunis, waving Tunisian flags and chanting: “Tunisia is free! Terrorism out!”
The march was to go from Bab Saadoun Square in Tunis to the museum, where a stone tablet was to be dedicated to the memory of the 21 foreign tourists and Tunisian policeman killed in the attack.
President Beji Caid Sebsi hosted foreign dignitaries including his counterparts from France, Francois Hollande, and Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski, as well as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and Algeria’s premier Abdelmalek Sellal, as well as the foreign ministers of Spain, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, and the Netherlands, Bert Koenders, were also expected.
The dead tourists were from Italy, Japan, France, Spain, Colombia, Australia, Britain, Belgium, Poland and Russia.
Officials have described the attack as “a big blow” to Tunisia’s crucial tourism industry, seen as key to reviving the economy in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
President Caid Sebsi had called for a huge turnout for the march to the museum, which is due to reopen to the public on Monday.
Tunisia has seen an upsurge in extremism since overthrowing longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, but has taken pride in forming a democratic government since the Arab Spring –– in marked contrast to countries such as Libya, Syria and Yemen.
The moderate Muslim group Ennahda main opposition party called on its supporters to join the march “as an expression of Tunisian unity in the face of this danger and of their determination to defend their country and ... preserve their freedom”.
The country’s powerful UGTT trade union also urged its supporters to take part “massively” in the march.
The march in Tunis echoes a similar anti-extremism demonstration in Paris after the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly and a kosher supermarket.
* Agence France-Presse
