Tunisia bombing: 1 police officer dies near U.S. embassy

A police officer was killed on Friday, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, the Interior Ministry said.

According to the ministry the two men targeted a security post across the street from the embassy. However, four other policemen and one civilian were injured in the explosion.

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Judiciary spokesperson Sufian al-Sulaiti, said the four injured security personnel were in a stable condition.

Al-Sulaiti added that a woman who was driving her car in the area was also slightly injured.

“The two terrorists used a large quantity of explosives and the motorcycle they were riding was also booby-trapped.

“The police are still trying to identify the attackers,”al-Sulaiti said.

However, shortly after witnesses reported the incidence, the U.S. embassy said that emergency personnel were responding to the explosion and urged the people to avoid the area.

The U.S. embassy building is in the Tunisian capital’s Berges du Lac neighbourhood, where several embassies and businesses are located.

According to witnesses, security vehicles and personnel have surrounded the embassy area.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

In recent time, Tunisia has witnessed a string of militant attacks, most of them claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

In June, two back-to-back suicide attacks killed one police officer and injured eight people in the centre of Tunis.

In March 2015, 21 tourists and a police officer were killed when gunmen attacked the Bardo Museum in Tunis.

Three months later, 38 tourists, mostly Britons, were killed in an attack at a hotel in the coastal city of Sousse.

In October, Tunisia elected Former law prof. Kais Saied, as its second democratically elected President since the Tunisian Revolution kicked off the Arab Spring revolts of 2010-2011.

In the past nine years, social unrest, militant attacks and an economic slowdown have afflicted the country on its fledgling democratic path.