After Deadly Attack, Tunisia Announces Measures to Improve Security

The prime minister of Tunisia promised stiff new security and anti-terrorism measures as the country reels from the second devastating attack on its crucial tourism industry in three months.

Al Jazeera reports that among the new measures will be efforts to evaluate the funding sources of organizations that promote radicalism, closing 80 mosques that are not controlled by the government, and declaring certain parts of the country where the government's control is tenuous as military zones.

The government also promised to increase security at tourists sites and give out monetary awards for information that helps to stop attacks.

Prime Minister Habib Essid also asked that all Tunisians contribute to the effort to defeat terrorism in the North African country where the Arab Spring began, and is the only country to have emerged from that turbulent period with a functioning government and democracy.

Prime Minister said the attack was carried out by one person, who was killed by the police after murdering 39 tourists at a beach resort.

The attack threatened to destroy the country's tourism industry, according to another Al Jazeera report. Tourism represents roughly 15 percent of the total Tunisian economy, and had already dropped by approximately 25 percent in the wake of another attack on tourists at a popular museum. That attack left 21 tourists and police dead.

Many Tunisians were enraged after the attack. Because of the large role that tourism plays in the Tunisian economy, if that source of revenue dries up, more people in the country will become poor and desperate, the type of environment within which terrorist groups like the Islamic State thrive.

The local chapter of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.