At Least 27 Dead in Tunisia Attack

At least 27 people were killed in an attack of two tourist hotels near the Tunisian town of Sousse Friday.

Two gunmen, reportedly equipped with Kalashnikovs, opened fire on tourists.

Among the dead were foreign tourists and one of the gunmen. At least six others were injured, according to Tunisia's Interior Ministry.

NBC reported that a hotel manager said guests had told him the two gunmen "came from the sea" and attacked people at the beach.

Picture (unverified) purportedly depicting one of the gunman who carried out the attack in #Sousse #Tunisia pic.twitter.com/X0p4294xmH

— Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) June 26, 2015

Eyewitnesses reported that shots were fired at the Imperial Marhaba hotel.

According to Al Jazeera, citing local media, gunmen may have specifically targeted tourists at the resort. The reports have not yet been confirmed.

In March, a Tunisian museum was attacked by the Islamic State in an assault that killed 23 people, 20 of whom were foreign tourists. At the time, that attack was called the worst in the country’s history.

In April, Tunisianarmy spokesperson Belhassen Bouslati said “terrorists” from the Oqba ibn Nafaa group, which is aligned with al-Qaida, and several other militant groups were operating in the country, waging a low level insurgency against the Tunisian government.