NINE ARRESTED IN TUNIS ATTACK, SOME US MUSEUMS TIGHTEN SECURITY [UPDATED]

Nine people have been arrested over the terrorist attack at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, report CNN’s Greg Botelho and Jethro Mullen. According to Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi, the government thinks four of those arrested are directly linked to Wednesday’s attack.

Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaou are currently among the men said to be behind the attacks. Labidi was “known to the security services,” said Essid. “He was flagged and monitored.”

At this point, a total of twenty-three people are believed to have been killed; another thirty-six people are still hospitalized. Eight others were treated then released. Most of those wounded or killed were foreigners.

The attacks come at a time when Tunisia found itself tenuously building a new democracy after the Arab Spring uprisings. There still haven’t been any groups yet that have claimed responsibility for the attack. Meanwhile, ABC reports that some United States museums are upping their security in case there are follow-up or copy-cat attacks.

Update, March 20, 12:11AM: Apparently ISIS has now come forward claiming responsibility for the attacks, according to The Daily Beast and other sources. The group described the attack as a “blessed invasion of one of the dens of the infidels and vice in Muslim Tunisia.” The ISIS message came from an audio clip posted on a forum used by the militant group.