They were named as Yassine Abidi and Hatem Khachnaoui, both Tunisian in their 20s, who were themselves gunned down by police commandoes after killing 19 people, and wounding 44.

Both had spent 'a great deal of time' in Kasserine, the western province which is considered a stronghold of a “jihadi” group linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

But ISIS in The statement described on Wednesday’s attack in Tunisia as a “blessed invasion of one of the dens of infidels and vice in Muslim Tunisia,” and appeared on a forum that carries messages from the group.

The statement said there were two attackers and they weren’t killed until they ran out of ammunition and it promised further attacks.
“Wait for the glad tidings of what will harm you, impure ones, for what you have seen today is the first drop of the rain,” the statement, which was also announced by US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

ISIL, which is based in Syria and Iraq, has affiliates in neighbouring Libya, where many Tunisians have gone to fight and train with extremist groups.

Earlier this week, a prominent Tunisian field commander for ISIL was killed in fighting inside Libya.

Tunisia’s government, meanwhile, announced the arrest of nine people — four of whom were connected directly to the attack and five others who supported them elsewhere in the country, authorities said.

The attack on the museum, which houses Roman artefacts in Tunis, was the worst at a tourist site in Tunisia in years. The deaths of so many tourists prompted a leading Italian cruise ship line to announce Thursday it was cancelling all stops in Tunisia indefinitely.