article_snippet: But it happened just days after a Tunisian jihadist tweeted that a pledge of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was coming soon, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
article_snippet: In ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi message, the jihadi claimed to belong to Jund al-Khilafah in Tunisia, a group that in December pledged allegiance to ISIS, even though that vow didn't seem to have fully registered with the SITE Intelligence Group.
article_snippet: ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi post comes after an ISIS fighter in Raqqa, Syria, recently appeared in a video questioning why jihadis in Tunisia had not pledged fealty.
article_snippet: This raises the possibility that the attack could be ISIS' debut on the Tunisian stage, timed to precede a pledge of allegiance from Tunisian jihadis for maximum impact," CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said.
article_snippet: Tunisia has been battling a jihadist presence in the Chaambi Mountains.
article_snippet: And in February, Libya's Interior Ministry announced the arrests of about 100 alleged extremists and published a video allegedly showing that the group possessed a formula for making explosives and a photograph of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
article_snippet: Up to 3,000 Tunisians are believed to have traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight as jihadists, more than any other country, according to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization in London.
article_snippet: There are hundreds that have returned from the battlefield, yet we haven't seen this kind of activity in Tunisia yet," said Rick Francona, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and CNN military analyst.
article_snippet: But analysts say Wednesday's attack could have been carried out by people who care more about fomenting terror or establishing a strict Islamic caliphate -- ISIS' aim -- than Tunisian politics.
article_snippet: Young people who can't get jobs are finding that joining extremist groups like ISIS'
article_snippet: and al Qaeda is a way out.
article_snippet: Up until now, these recruits have largely done these recruits fighting away from home.