Tunis, Mar 29 (EFE).– At least nine members of the Okba Ibn Nafaa terrorist group, including its leader and the mastermind behind the deadly attack on the Bardo museum in this capital, Lokmane Abu Sakhr, died in an operation carried out on the weekend by the Tunisian National Guard, an Interior Ministry spokesman told Efe on Sunday.

The operation in which Abu Sakhr and his accomplices died was a “search and capture” effort carried out in the southwestern Gafsa region, spokesman Mohammed Ali Larwi said.

The terrorists were killed a few hours before an international demonstration against terrorism in Tunis attended by several heads of state, prime ministers other politicians and dignitaries.

Participating in the march and subsequent rally were Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, various Arab and European leaders, including France’s Francois Hollande and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, along with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.

The march was organized by the government to marshall international support for Tunisia and to raise the morale among Tunisians, who are becoming quite concerned by extremist violence in their country.

The ministry said that the March 18 Bardo museum attack, in which 22 people – 21 of them foreign tourists – died, was carried out by the extremist group linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, whose members have been taking refuge in the Chaambi Mountains on the border with Algeria since the summer of 2012.

The group, comprised of Tunisians, Algerians and Morrocans, is considered to have killed about 60 members of the security forces.

The Interior Ministry said that 23 people comprised the group that organized the museum attack, in which four gunmen – three of whom were killed – participted. About 80 percent of the group’s members were captured and turned over to judicial authorities on Friday. EFE