A suspected militant was arrested on Wednesday after wounding two policemen with a knife near the Parliament 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,” the statement said.
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.
The ministry said Wednesday’s suspect had confessed that “he had adopted Takfiri thought three years ago and believes that killing security forces is a form of jihad.”
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. Interior Minister Lotfi Brahem also visited the scene and spoke to witnesses.
The square is opposite the Parliament building and close to the Bardo museum, where 21 people, mostly European tourists, were killed in an attack by three gunmen 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.
The 2015 attacks severely damaged the economy of the North African country, which has a large tourism sector at its Mediterranean beaches.
"Since then, security has been boosted at strategic sites while authorities have cracked down on militants, dismantling dozens of cells.
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