TUNIS (TIP): The Islamic State group issued a statement on March 19 claiming responsibility for the deadly attack on Tunisia’s national museum that killed 23 people, mostly tourists. The statement described on March 18 attack in Tunisia as a “blessed invasion of one of the dens of infidels and vice in Muslim Tunisia”, and appeared on a forum that carries messages from the group. The statement said there were two attackers and they weren’t killed until they ran out of ammunition and it promised further attacks.

“Wait for the glad tidings of what will harm you, impure ones, for what you have seen today is the first drop of the rain,” the statement, which was also announced by US-based SITE Intelligence Group. The jihadist group (also known as ISIS), which is based in Syria and Iraq, has affiliates in neighboring Libya, where many Tunisians have gone to fight and train with extremist groups. Earlier this week, a prominent Tunisian field commander for IS was killed in fighting inside Libya. Tunisia’s government, meanwhile, announced the arrest of nine people — four of whom were connected directly to the attack and five others who supported them elsewhere in the country, authorities said.