that at the time and recently was linked to groups linked to al-sharia. there is speculation -- it is speculation that this attacks off of the back of a killing of a man on saturday. he is one of tunisia's most wanted men. there is a link between him and the assassination of one of those politicians that i mentioned in 2013. now he is linked to al-sharia, but more recently linked to groups affiliated with isil fighting in and around sirte. but what we heard from amean who is a democracy advocate in tunisia, he mentioned bardo museum. it has one of the most precious mosaic collections of roman mosaics in the world, and we have seen what has been happening -- >> in syria. >> exactly. >> in the last few weeks, and you can't help but draw a link between this and what happened in syria. >> exactly. i can only imagine what tunisians are feeling right now, because they have never seen this kind of attack in their history. >> all right. let's bring in a journalist on the line from tunis, she is at the scene. give us a sense of what is happening out there. what is

ansar al sharia, been a problem.a good job so far but yesterday, the terrorists only have to be right one time. >> that's absolutely right and you kind of alluded to it, but with tunisia being the country that the most foreign fighters have come from, understanding 3,000 have gone to join isis. in your view, is this unfortunately inevitable that this was going to happen, some of the fighters return back to their own country? >> i think it was only a matter of time. we've seen the calls from isis to conduct the lone wolf attacks in the country of origin. this is one of the fears we have that might happen in the united states, as some of those fighters return here. this is exactly what i think happened in tunisia. these are committed fighters and as you said, the numbers are overwhelming for a small country, the number of people that have gone and volunteer to fight for isis and al qaeda. >> what are the chances that this is no link to isis? that this was, if you want to call it a rag tag group of fighters coming toget

and al-sharia has never issued any warnings -- [ technical difficulties ] on either politicians or the military. but the anti-terrorism law being discussed in parliament is very very crucial for tunisia now. because there is concern about these people who are returning from fighting in iraq and syria, and there is concern about what to do with these people. >> it is quite significant that this museum was the target of this attack. because obviously there will be tourists here. >> absolutely. it has roman mosaics, it is extremely popular with tourists one of the most important sites in tunisia. so clearly, they would have been wanting to target a place where there will be a lot of tourists or foreigners at least visiting and the museum was ideal for them, and also because they caused panic at parliament just five minutes away. >> we're watching an official speaking now. >> it appears to be the spokesman for the ministry of interior. >> a spokesman for the ministry of interior. let's listen to what he has to say. >> both of the terrorists are being besieged. we have some information that

there was a massive attack on the synagogue just off the coast and a series of attacks ansar al sharia launched against the embassy in 2012. they killed off candidates in 2013. yes, there has been a lot of tunisians who have traveled to iraq and syria as part of this movement. in the wake of the revolution in 2012 there's been a vacuum as tunisia asserts itself and security services to kind of you know keep the country safe. and so there's been a vacuum where there's been high unemployment, young people looking for things to do. so yeah it's a officerfertile environment and then return home to plot within tunisia. >> there are three still at large, three of the attackers. how did they find them? how did they look for them jim? >> that's the million dollar question. tunisia security services are very good for -- i was in tunisia in 2013 and 2014. all up and down the avenue bordeo a broadway they will be going through all of their contacts and known networks. the new government has been in tune to the security situation and we'll putting forth their maximum effort over the next few days.

most likely ansar al sharia or isis plot behind it. it's a western target. tunisia has been -- it was the birthplace of the arab spring really the beacon of hope for democracy in the region the only one. i think that's why they are trying to bring down tunisia. first looking at their parliament to hit that then western tourists at the museum. >> even if it is this sort of birthplace of -- it is the birthplace of the arab spring a place of promise certainly and it's a country that is trying to figure out how it balances security with democracy right now, but you also have this very real statistic that tunisia has the most number the biggest number of people who are going to fight with isis. why is that? what is driving tunisians to syria and iraq? >> well a lot of northern africans are going to the region to iraq and syria, to join the fight which is making northern africa a very dangerous place. we are seeing really i think northern africa is falling now, not just to al qaeda affiliates but now to isis. we are seeing more and more al qaeda affiliates pledgin

ansar al sharia al qaeda in the maghreb is there. tunisia has the most number of jihadi fighters in syria and iraq more than 3,000 by the government's estimates. and over the last few years, hundreds have been returning home. so turkey -- turkish security officials have been warning for some time of the possibility of an attack like this but clearly weren't able to stop it this time. >> baa compare it to its neighbor libya, tunisia has been very very positive in terms of the fallout from what used to be called the arab spring relatively peaceful a lot of tourists still go there, as we see today, atika. so this is highly unusual for an attack like this to occur in tunisia. >> reporter: absolutely. in fact tunisia was the birthplace of the arab spring. and it was considered the success story because it had successful peaceful elections. but even as the lid was lifted off the political landscape in tunisia, it also meant this explosion of very extremist political islamist thought. and we have seen a number of groups like this operating

government officials believe the group ansar al sharia in tunisia may have been behind the attack. members reportedly pledged allegiance to the islamic state group last september. tunisian interior minister says authorities have arrested 23 people in connection with the assault. he says they're still searching for an algerian and other foreigners. the minister says the assailants are linked to a militant group based in syria, bordering algeria. >>> u.s. authorities have arrested an army national guard soldier and his cousin on charges of conspiring to join islamic state militants. the two are also suspected of planning an attack on a military facility in illinois. justice department officials say the two men are hassan edmunds, a 22-year-old member of the illinois national guard, and 29-year-old jonas edmunds. both are u.s. citizens. fbi agents arrested hassan edmunds at an airport in chicago as he was attempting to fly to egypt. he allegedly planned to join islamic state militants in syria and make use of his experience in the military reserves. u.s. authorities believe more than

told a french tv station that the dead gunmen are linked to an islamic extremist group called ansar al sharian tunisia. the organization is said to be associated with al qaeda. the president has not mentioned any connection between the gunmen and the islamic state group. authorities beefed up the security in tunisia's capital a day after the worst attack the country has seen in more than a decade. officials say they are deploying soldiers on the streets to guard against another assault. >>> japanese police have sent specially trained officers to tunis. the terror response team will look into the deaths of the japanese tourists in the museum attack. >> translator: i strongly condemn such unforgivable violence. i feel anger over the unjust despicable terror attack. >> members of the police unit will work with officials from the foreign ministry. the national police agency set up the team in 1998 following the hostage crisis at the japanese ambassador's residence in peru. the team was sent to jordan in january when two japanese citizens were taken hostage and believed to be killed by islamic sta

there's a rat line going back and forth and not to mention inside tunisia, you have al sharia, a branchthe same group behind the benghazi consulate attack. it's a small country in north africa. not a country that a lot of us associate with extremism or violence but there's a very proactive isis movement there. this is not the first act of violence that's occurred. >> how equipped is tunisia to deal with this? there was sort of a general warning from isis saying if you keep this same government you're in trouble and now this happens. how prepared is this country to deal with it? >> look, it goes both ways. the tunisians support a tremendous amount from european partners. on the other hand, they have been racked by instability over the last few years. there is tremendous problems there right now in terms of people sorting out the aftermath of the arab spring. a lot of people in tunisia are looking for democracy. there is a very vocal, small minority of people looking to use the arab spring to bring violent and radical islam into control in tunisia. the targets of that violence, you know,

so what isis and al sharia manipulate exploit, infiltrate the politics. the immunity system is weak and that's why isis and like-minded groups infiltrate these groups and say we are standing up, we are the defender of the real authentic islam. think about this for a moment here. take yemen. the attacks against the mosques, worship places. sacred places. isis and sharia would like us to believe they are defending the faith, yet they are attacking sacred places. regardless of the disagreement with the houthi that killing worshippers and -- and what does this tell you? more than almost 500 killed and injured. what does that tell you? it's not about religion. this is ash politics ideology. showing fears. in tunisia attack basically western tourists who had nothing to do with whatever happening, and this is not about a clash of civilizations. these are infernal civil wars in the region. >> very interesting. how much is this is it also fighting among each other for notoriety? >> if you ask me really how to you describe the whole thing? this is an internal civil

ansar al sharia are a local group, might collaborate with either one of those.s is the biggest kid on the block right now. we have seen the attack in libya last month that killed ten foreigners at an upscale hotel, including an american. we have seen an attack in the sinai last month, in egypt, where 26 people were killed by an isis affiliate. this was even a separate issue, which was police and military officials. isis is really -- i find it very hard to believe that al qaeda and isis will cooperate. >> colonel, you are there in the region. is there collaboration going on between these various terror groups all of whom by the way, consist largely of sunni arabs? >> yeah right now what we are seeing here is like peter said isis is the big dog on the block. they have pushed some of their senior leaders out to some of these failed states like we have seen recently in libya with the attacks there, but i don't think the more power positions are going to work together. you saw what happened last week with boko haram. one thing i will tell you, we noticed here isis is

significant number of tunisians will be heading back and then the salafi movement like with anza al sharia as we saw in tunisia, they were responsible for storming the tunis embassy a few years ago. >> in the post-gadhafi era wondering what would happen in the vacuum. thank you very much. three people still on the loose with terrorists on the run in tunisia. >>> let's move on. caroline kennedy, jfk's daughter and u.s. ambassador to japan is reportedly receiving death threats, all this after u.s. ambassador to south korea was slashed. we'll talk about that skusht what's happening ahead. also the millionaire star of hbo's "the jinx" is being accused of murder and hear where they are putting him, and syria claims it shot down a u.s. drone as the pentagon gives a pretty interesting response to that. are u.s. secrets possibly at risk here? you're watching cnn. i'm brian vickers, nascar® driver. i'm kevin nealon comedian. and i'm arnold palmer, professional golfer. know what we have in common? we talked to our doctors about treatment with xarelto®. me, when i had a blood clot in my leg that coul

there's a very large pro-jihadi movement in tunisia called ansar al sharia.arried out an attack on the u.s. embassy in tunis just a few days after the attack in 2012 and there is also a very active north african al qaeda affiliate based in tunisia in the mountainous region near the algerian border. late last year they said they were going to bring jihad to tunis. >> what do we know about the individuals who carried out this attack? we heard that one of them was known to tunisian authorities. are there other terror suspects they are still searching for? >> we know very little about the individuals so far beyond the fact that one of them was on the radar screen of tunisian security services. but they have not yet been able to link the perpetrators to any established terror group. i think the fact that there have been nine arrests including four people they say were directly tied to the attack suggests there's a wider cell wider logistical network that was behind this. that may point to the involvement of a larger more established terrorist group like al qaeda o

the ansar al sharia. and indeed general heftar's campaign was to root out those groups. i think what you have is not the defeat of those groups but rather their dispersal and mutation. this is what we're seeing with isis. isis is really peeling away a lot of members of these older post revolutionary jihadist groups that had affiliation to al qaeda. you had influx of volunteers that went to iraq and syria to fight with isis. libyans that went, started returning last spring and last summer. that formed the nucleus of isis in the city of derna. you've had isis spread to all three of libya's major provinces. and of course they have conducted some very high profile attacks against corinthia hotel and most recently tragic killing of egyptian cops. again, let me move to some thoughts about policy option. one thing that makes this so confounding, we're faced with a terrorist problem in libya that is embedded in a very complex civil war. there's no government to work through. there are two competing factions and we face this in iraq and syria and yemen is what partner do we assis