Tunisia Declares State of Emergency After Deadly Bombing

Tunis has been hit by its third major insurgent attack this year.

Tunisia declared a state of emergency Tuesday after at least 12 people were killed and 17 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing.

The blast ripped through a bus transporting presidential guards in the nation's capital, Tunis.

“I saw the bus blow up. There were bodies and blood everywhere," said bystander Bassem Trifi, according to Reuters.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though militants claiming allegiance to the self-proclaimed Islamic State group have carried out two major attacks in Tunisia this year.

Thirty-eight foreigners were killed in a Sousse resort massacre in June, while 21 tourists were killed in an attack targeting the popular Bardo Museum in Tunis in March. Numerous other militant groups operate across the country.

Tunisia was the birthplace of the so-called Arab Spring when Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed street vendor, self-immolated in front of a local municipality after officials there repeatedly refused to help him or listen to his complaints.

His death triggered protests across the country that ultimately saw the ouster of Tunisia’s long serving dictator President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who led the country from 1989 until 2011.

Since the uprising and ouster of Ben Ali, popularly referred to as the ‘Jasmine Revolution,’ Tunisia has struggled to install a fully-functioning liberal democracy and has witnessed a series of violent attacks from extremist groups operating within the country.

An earlier state of emergency was lifted in March 2014, which had been imposed in 2011 after the ouster of of Ben Ali.