BEYOND SYRIA IRAQ

PROVINCE TIES TO THE ISLAMIC STATE CORE
The Role of Tunisians
■ AARON Y. ZELIN
PREPARED STATEMENT
ALTHOUGH THE ISLAMIC STATEhas never claimed Tunisia or parts of it
as one of its provinces, Tunisia has been important as a target for
attacks and attempts to take its territory. As with its expansion outside
of Iraq and Syria, IS began to focus on Tunisia in late 2014. In mid-
December that year, a video message from Raqqa, Syria, featured Abu Bakr
al-Hakim (who went by Abu al-Muqatil in the video), a notorious individual
who had been involved within the broader jihadist movement going back
to 2003. 1 In the video, Hakim claimed responsibility for the assassination
of Tunisia’s secular leftist politicians in 2013—“Yes, tyrants, we’re the ones
who killed Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi”—thus confirming the
Ennahda-led government’s suspicions that he was involved. 2 Beyond calling
for more violence and for Tunisians to remember its imprisoned brothers
and sisters, Hakim also called upon the Tunisian people to pledge allegiance
to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to raise the banner of tawhid (pure monotheism),
and to rip down the flags of Charles de Gaulle and Napoleon (alluding to the
historically close relations between France and Tunisia).
Since then, IS has been involved in a number of attacks in Tunisia, and
in spring of 2016 it attempted to set up a new territorial base near the border
between Tunisia and Libya. Its purpose is to create an environment that
allows for greater recruitment and sympathy and the undermining of the
state. Attacks against the military and the security establishment are carried
out to create chaos and strike fear, as well as to make citizens question the
ability of their government to protect them. Attacks against tourism infrastructure
hurt the economy, which creates grievances against the state. This,
IS hopes, will in the long term delegitimize the Tunisian state and provide
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