i m hair russ faulkner. vie vince escalating into syria violence escalating into sea syria. two people killed by roof top snipers after funerals for dem monitoring staters killed friday. the crowd setting fire to the governing baath party head quarters. uprest in the arab world threatening regimes seen as u.s. and western allies. several southeastern states right now under a tornado threat. hail, high winds, dangerous lightning all possible. in california, a second round of heavy rain forcion evacuation. high flood waters making it nearly impossible to get around. crews cleaning up from an earlier storm forced to abandon their efforts because of all of this. i m harris faulkner.
right now nobody is taking responsibility for these attacks. the gunmen were killed in a gunfight with the tunisian military. but tunisia itself has had quite a problem with islamic extremists in the past. about 3,000 of their citizens have joined the islamic state or are believed to have joined the islamic state. just this month, 30 militants were arrested in tunisia, some of whom had just returned from syria, plotting spectacular attacks. as you know, thomas, this was the place where the arab spring started in 2011. it s one of the places experts say was the shining light for, or the glimmer of light for democracy within that region. and we re going to talk more about that. i also know it was reported last year that to combat people joining splinter groups and different islamic radical groups they had put up signs saying terrorism is not ours. katy, we ll come back to you
tunisia, right here has the highest number of recruits of 3,000, what we just heard, and all of these going right into syria. now, that data i get provided by private analyst groups. when it comes to this the washington post reports that most of these foreign fighters are under the age of 30. a little bit more perspective for you. an uprising in 2011 is partially the reason for the surge in foreign fighters. that s when long-time dictator was overthrown. in the revolution s wake government has enforced some restrictions on religions. two politicians were assassinated in february and july. the u.s. embassy and american schools were also attacked in september. now a look at the most recent report available. in 2013 it documented a marked increase in incidents fueled by violent extremism. you re looking at this image here. those are the clashes in the wake of the assassination of an opposition leader.