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ByJameyKeatenand Bouazza Ben Bouazza The Associated Press TUNIS,TUNISIA Theradical Islamic State group claimed responsibility Thursday for the attack on a famed Tunis museum that left 23 people dead and scores of tourists wounded, and upended the country's struggling tour- ism industry. Defying the extremists, hundreds of Tunisians ral- lied Thursday at the Na- tional Bardo Museum, the site of the attack, stepping around trails of blood and broken glass to proclaim their solidarity with the victims and with Tunisia's fledgling democracy. One person carried a sign say- ing "Tunisia is bloodied but still standing." Tunisian security forces arrested nine people, five with alleged direct connec- tions to Wednesday's at- tack by two gunmen who were later slain by police, the president's office said. The other four suspects ar- rested in the central part of the country were part of a cell supporting those involved in the attack, the statement said. Prime Minister Habib Essid told France's RTL ra- dio that Tunisia was work- ing with other countries to learn more about the slain attackers, identified as Yas- sine Laabidi and Hatem Khachnaoui. He said Laa- bidi had been flagged to the intelligence agency, al- though not for "anything special." The attack was the worst at a tourist site in Tunisia in more than a decade and prompted a leading Ital- ian cruise ship line to an- nounce it was canceling all stops in the North African nation indefinitely. The deaths of so many tourists will create massive trouble for Tunisia's tourism industry, which attracts thousands of foreigners ev- ery year to the country's Mediterranean beaches, desert oases and ancient Roman ruins — and which had just started to recover after years of decline. Two major cruise ships whose passengers were among the victims quickly left the port of Tunis early Thurs- day, leaving behind griev- ing family members and slain passengers. Razor wire ringed the museum entrance Thurs- day and security forces guarded major thorough- fares in Tunis, the capital. Culture Minister Lat- ifa Lakhdar gave a defi- ant press conference in the museum, where blood trails still stained the ground. "They are targeting knowledge. They are tar- geting science. They are targeting reason. They are targeting history. They are targeting memory, because all these things mean noth- ing in their eyes," she told reporters. "There is only their reactionary, very backward and sclerotic ide- ology." Later in the afternoon, authorities opened the gates of the museum for a rally in defiance of the bloodshed. About 500 peo- ple held a moment of silence amid the shattered glass be- fore singing Tunisia's na- tional anthem. Participants included black-robed judges and lawyers, families with chil- dren and teenagers swathed in the red-and-white Tuni- sian flag. Many also carried bouquets of flowers for the victims. Tunisians also attended the funeral of security force member Aymen Morjen, one of the victims. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in an audio and written statement on jihadi forums and described the museum housing Roman artifacts as a "den of infidels and vice." It celebrated the two attackers as "knights" armed with assault rifles and grenades and prom- ised further strikes. TOURIST MUSEUM Islamic State group claims Tunisia attack that killed 23 By Hamza Hendawi The Associated Press ADEN, YEMEN Forces loyal to Yemen's former president stormed the international airport in Aden on Thurs- day and sent fighter planes to bomb the palace in the southern port city where the current president has been based since fleeing from the rebel-held capital last month. Troops fended off the air- port attack, the airstrikes missed the palace and Pres- ident Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was in a safe place, Aden's governor Abdel-Aziz bin Habtour said. But the violence, which he said had left 13 people dead, marked a major es- calation in Hadi's long- simmering conflict with former autocrat Ali Abdul- lah Saleh, who is allied with the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis. Hadi remains Ye- men's internationally rec- ognized president and has been a close U.S. ally in the battle against a powerful lo- cal al-Qaida affiliate. Thursday's attacks were led by forces loyal to Saleh, who stepped down in 2012 in the face of an Arab Spring uprising. A U.N. and Gulf-brokered deal saw Hadi, his vice president, as- sume office. But Saleh had never re- ally conceded power, and Hadi has accused his pre- decessor of acting through well-placed loyalists to ob- struct efforts to reform the government and the secu- rity forces. The U.N. Secu- rity Council has sanctioned Saleh and top Houthi rebel leaders. The Houthis swept down from their northern strong- holds and seized the capital Sanaa in September. They now control at least nine of Yemen's 21 provinces. Hadi fled Sanaa last month after the Houthis put him under house arrest and he estab- lished a temporary capital in Aden, Yemen's main eco- nomic hub and the former capital of the once-indepen- dent south. The assault on the air- port set off clashes between forces loyal to Saleh and Hadi in Aden, with explo- sions echoing through the largely deserted streets. The warplanes then launched three airstrikes at Hadi's palace, located on a rocky hill overlook- ing the Arabian Sea. The strikes caused no damage and Hadi was not present at the time, bin Habtour said. It was not clear whether the planes were flown by Saleh loyalists in the mil- itary or by Houthi rebels, who control several mili- tary and air bases in and around Sanaa. The attempt to capture Aden's airport appeared to be aimed at isolating Hadi and weakening his hold on the city. It is not yet clear if he will be able to leave Aden by the end of the month to attend an Arab Summit in Egypt. Officials said the air- port is operating again, but there were no flights out Thursday evening. Late Thursday, a state- ment issued by Hadi de- scribed the day's events as a "failed military coup against constitutional le- gitimacy." Last week, Saleh had boasted he would corner Hadi. "Those fleeing to the south ... will find only one exit: the Red Sea to- ward Djibouti," he said in a speech to his supporters. Hadi is a southerner, and his loyalists — in the military, police and mi- litias known as Popu- lar Committees — domi- nate Aden. But two army units in the city are loyal to Saleh, as are 3,000 po- lice special forces under Brig. Gen. Abdul-Hafez al- Saqqaf. Hadi tried unsuc- cessfully to reassign al- Saqqaf earlier this month, prompting clashes. It was al-Saqqaf's forces that stormed the airport early Thursday, spark- ing battles with pro-Hadi forces. Machine-gun fire rang out and explosions shook the terminal build- ing. At least two shells hit the airport's grounds, said se- curity and aviation officials at the scene. Ten Saleh loy- alists were captured in the clashes, according to secu- rity and medical officials. SOUTH ARABIA Ye me n pr es id en t' s so ut her n st ro ng hol d at ta ck ed b y ri va ls By Nick Perry The Associated Press TANNA ISLAND, VANUATU When her roof started col- lapsing during the cyclone, Christine Iakangem felt she had no choice but to grab her 1-week-old baby Ange- line and start running. On another part of the island, Kelson Hosea and his family crammed them- selves into a shelter that he had just finished building. Not far from him, village chief Philip Kasamu gath- ered his people into a cy- clone-proof hut while won- dering if their bickering had provoked nature's wrath. Tanna Island in the southern part of the Van- uatu archipelago was one of the hardest hit when Cy- clone Pam tore through the South Pacific nation early Saturday. The cyclone's 168 mile per hour winds pum- meled lush tropical forests on Tanna into a brown jum- ble of broken trunks and strewn branches. Among the island's 30,000 residents, however, there were just five con- firmed deaths, a testament to their experience in deal- ing with cyclones as well as some narrow escapes. Tanna is a place that civ- ilization has only lightly touched. Dirt roads from the airport lead past small stores and women washing clothes in the ocean. In- land, many of the Melane- sian people live as they have for generations, in wooden huts with roofs thatched with coconut leaves. They tend small plots of vegetables while pigs and chickens run free. On the east side of the island, the mighty volcano Yasur belches and booms through- out the otherwise still night. Iakangem said she was terrified as the cyclone be- gan tearing her hut apart, and she decided she needed to get out. She thought the best place to go would be an old store made from con- crete, but knew it was about 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) away, a formidable distance in the dark and through the vicious winds. "It was the only safe place, there was no other place," she said. And so she picked up her tiny baby, covered her in blankets, and ran. She said she needed to stop often, as coconuts and pieces of de- bris flew about. But eventu- ally she made it. Patrick George and his wife Suzanne Job were also in their hut that night when a tree branch came crashing through their thatch roof. So they ran with their 2-year- old daughter Sondrine and their 6-month-old baby George to the school nearby. The winds tore part of the school's roof off but they all made it through the night. Not everybody survived. Iakangem said a close rela- tive was leaving her home when she was struck and killed by a piece of flying roofing iron. She said the woman's son tried to help her when he, too, was killed by a piece of wood hurled by the wind. The island has been hit before by big cyclones, in- cluding Cyclone Uma in 1987. In the villages, peo- ple traditionally built spe- cial structures to survive. Unlike the square-shaped open-air huts that people live in most of the time, the cyclone huts are triangu- lar with solid walls to the ground, similar to an A- framed house. It was into one of these huts that Chief Kasamu gathered many of his villag- ers on Friday as the winds began to gain strength. He said the storm made him feel like he had no power, and came as a signal that his people needed to get along better. Hosea, who lives down the valley from the chief, is much more connected to the modern world. The owner of the Jungle Oasis, he built nine bungalows and one tree house for adven- turous tourists who travel from Europe and Australia to visit the volcano. He said he'd been call- ing and checking on the weather and knew the cy- clone was coming. And so for two days he worked hard building his own small, tri- angular cyclone-proof hut. He finished it on Friday, and that night squeezed in with his wife, daughter and four other relatives. He said such huts were used by his great-great grandfather's generation, but the knowledge of them is being lost on a younger generation. "It's very tough, very strong," he said. "It didn't move." PACIFIC STORM Run, build, stay: How islanders survived Vanuatu's cyclone NICKPERRY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Kelson Hosea and wife Joyce Hosea stand next to the hut Kelson built to withstand Cyclone Pam, on Thursday on Tanna Island, Vanuatu. CHRISTOPHE ENA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A policeman guards the entrance of the Bardo museum in Tunis, Tunisia, on Thursday as a blood stain is seen at right, a day a er gunmen opened fire killing 23people. Please help sponsor a classroom subscription Call Kathy at (530) 737-5047 to find out how. ThroughtheNewspapersinEducation program, area classrooms receive the Red Bluff Daily News every day thanks to the generosity of these local businesses & individuals. •DR.ASATO&DR.MARTIN • FIDELITY NATIONAL TITLE CO. • WI N G S OLA R & W OO D EN ERGY • DOLLING INSURANCE • GUMM'S OPTICAL SHOPPE • OLIVE CITY QUICK LUBE • WA LM AR T • TEHAMA CO. DEPT. 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