Senior world officials joined thousands of Tunisians in a rally denouncing extremism on Sunday, less than two weeks after an attack on the national museum left 20 foreign visitors dead.
French President François Hollande and leaders of Poland, Palestine and Gabon attended the event in the capital Tunis in a show of solidarity with the North African country.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Algerian Prime Minister Abdel-Malek Sellal, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and other foreign officials also showed up.
The dignitaries laid flowers at a memorial set up at the entrance of the Bardo Museum where the March 18 attack occurred.
Addressing the rally at the end of the march, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essibsi said Tunisians were united against extremism.
"The Tunisian people have proved that they will not be intimidated by terrorists. Tunisia will not be alone in facing this affliction," Essibsi told the ceremony outside the museum.
The marchers, waving the national flag, started their rally from the area of Bab Es-Saadoun in central Tunis to the Bardo Museum as thousands of security personnel were deployed along the road stretching for three kilometers.
Hours before the march, Tunisian security forces killed a leading militant suspected of involvement in the Bardo attack.
Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid identified the slain militant as Khaled Chaib, an Algerian national, also known as Abu Sakr Lokman.
Chaib is believed to be the leader of Okba Ibn Nafaa, a militant group operating in a mountainous area on the Tunisian-Algerian border.
Essid added that eight other militants were killed along with Chaib late Saturday in a security raid in the southern Tunisian province of Gafsa.
Tunisia has mounted a nationwide crackdown on suspected extremists since the Bardo assault, the country's deadliest in more than a decade.
The Islamic State (Daesh) militia, active in Syria and Iraq, has claimed responsibility for the Bardo attack.
By Tarak Guizani
[This story has been edited from the source material.]
