How Tunisia became a target for terrorists

The terrorist attack at Tunisia’s Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba that left 39 people dead was remarkable in its brashness and its detail. Islamic State were quick to name 23-year-old Seifeddine Rezgui as a ‘soldier of the caliphate’ yet on the surface Rezgui appeared to have been a regular young man. He’d never been abroad, let alone to Syria or Iraq. He was a fan of Real Madrid and a former break-dancing enthusiast.

This was the single largest attack on foreign tourists in a North African country since the Luxor massacre in 1997 and many will be asking why it took place in Tunisia, the country hailed as the only success story of the Arab Spring. The country’s relative tranquillity allowed it to attract fairly large numbers of tourists, despite its location right next to Libya.

Tunisia has been in better shape politically than many of its neighbours but it is no simple success story. This was the second mass-casualty attack at a Tunisian tourist site this year, after another on the Bardo National Museum in March left 22 people dead.