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Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia is a radical Islamist group that operates in Tunisia. It has around 1,000 people as part of the movement.[1] It has been listed as a terrorist group by the Tunisian government[2] as well by the United Nations, the UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States.[3] Some of its members may be linked to the 2015 Sousse attacks.[4]Following the Tunisian revolution, many Islamist political prisoners held by the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali were released, including Abu Ayadh al-Tunisi aka Saifallah Ben Hassine, who had previously co-founded the Tunisian Combat Group with Tarek Maaroufi in June 2000.[5]Abu Ayadh aka ben Hassine founded Ansar al-Sharia in late April 2011. The group quickly established a media branch, al-Qairawan Media Foundation, and developed different media outlets including a blog, Facebook page, and a magazine.[6] Ansar al-Sharia held a national conference at Kairouan in 2012 in which Abu Ayadh aka ben Hassine called for the Islamization of Tunisia's media, education, tourism and commercial sectors, and the establishment of an Islamic trade union to confront the secular Tunisian General Labour Union.[7] The group also campaigned for the release of Islamist prisoners, such as Omar Abdel-Rahman, Abu Qatada and Tunisians who had fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq and are held in Iraqi jails.[6]Members of Ansar al-Sharia have regularly taken part in protests in Tunisia against perceived blasphemy and have been suspected of involvement in a number of violent incidents. The Tunisian Interior ministry accused the group of masterminding the 2013 wave of political assassinations in Tunisia.[8] Violent incidents attributed to members of the group include attacks on a television station that showed the movie Persepolis in October 2011, attacks on a controversial art exhibit in June 2012,[9]a deadly attack in September 2012 on the US embassy in Tunisia[10] and the assassination of politicians Chokri Belaid (February 2013) and Mohamed Brahmi (July 2013).[11]The group was designated as a terrorist organisation by the Tunisian government in August 2013.[12] The group was damaged by the widespread arrests that followed this designation, and many of its members left Tunisia, traveling to Libya and joining the local Ansar al-Sharia, or going to Syria and joining the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[13]An interview conducted over the course of three different meetings between January and March 2013 with a young leader of Ansar al-Sharia based in Tunis describes the intellectual basis for the Salafist movement:[14]Ben Hassine was reportedly killed in an airstrike in June 2015.[15]Countries and organizations below have officially listed the Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia as a terrorist organization.Terrorist Organizations Ansar al-Sharia has allied with.