TUNIS – As images of the black smoke rising from the US embassy and news of deaths circulated in the Tunisian media, shock and dismay spread with them.
Amina el-Mahdhi, a young woman in her twenties who works for the International Federation of Human Rights, was driving down the highway that connects downtown Tunis to the suburb of La Goulette when she first saw the column of smoke and heard on the radio where it was coming from.