Suspected Islamist arrested after knife attack near Tunis parliament

TUNIS – A suspected Islamist militant was arrested on Wednesday after wounding two policemen in a knife attack near the parliament building in Tunis, Tunisia’s interior ministry said.

The assailant was known to authorities and said after the attack that he considered the police to be “tyrants”, according to the statement.

One of the policemen was taken to hospital for treatment after being wounded in the neck, while the other was only lightly wounded, it said.

Large numbers of police were deployed to the Bardo square in the aftermath of the attack, a witness said. Blood could be seen on the ground in the square.

The square is opposite the parliament building and close to the Bardo museum, the site of an attack against foreign tourists that killed 21 people in March 2015.

Tunisia suffered two other major attacks that year, one against tourists at the beach resort of Sousse and the other against presidential guards in the capital.

Since then, security has been boosted at strategic sites while authorities have cracked down on militants, dismantling dozens of cells.

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