Suicide Blast And Attempt Deal a Blow To Tunisia European Pressphoto Agency Tunisian members of the civil defense carried the body of a suicide bomber, who blew himself up at a beach near the tourist resort of Sousse, south of Tunis, on Wednesday. TUNIS - A suicide bombing in a resort area on Wednesday and the thwarting of another, the first such attacks in more than a decade, dealt a new blow to Tunisia's fragile transition as it grapples with rising Islamist extremism and political deadlock between secular and Islamist parties. A man detonated explosives outside a seaside hotel in Sousse in the morning, killing himself but causing no other casualties, the police there said, adding that the man had approached the hotel from the beach but was prevented from entering by security guards. News agencies reported that another person was caught with explosives, in Monastir, before they could be detonated. Details of the two episodes were not immediately clear, nor was it clear whether they were related. Although Islamist-inspired violence remains at a low level in Tunisia, the prospect of suicide bombings comes at a delicate time for the country. The elected Islamist-led government and secular opposition parties are close to ending a three-month political logjam. Talks to reach a consensus on a new constitution, a new electoral law and an independent caretaker government to take over in preparation for new elections are in the final stages. Mediated by a group of trade unions, the discussions have offered Tunisia a way forward just as the country seemed poised to follow Egypt into violent confrontations between secularists and Islamists after the assassination of a leftist politician this summer. Even as talks inch forward, attacks by Islamists on police and army targets have continued, threatening to break apart the tentative political consensus. Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the ruling Islamist party, Ennahda, warned in an opinion piece in the newspaper The Guardian on Monday that such attacks were attempts to abort not only Tunisia's "dreams of freedom and dignity but the dream of the whole of the Arab Spring." Tunisia won widespread sympathy when it led off the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring in 2011, ousting its longtime president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was widely regarded as the leader of a repressive government that forced secularization on society. But since then, it has suffered political tumult, a rise in crime and a resurgence of Islamist-led violence. An extremist group, Ansar al-Shariah, attacked the United States Embassy in Tunis earlier this year and assassinated two leftist politicians. Armed militants have also killed soldiers and police officers in sporadic clashes in recent months. Suicide bombings have been uncommon, though not unknown. Tunisia suffered a devastating suicide attack in 2002, aimed at a historic synagogue on the island of Djerba. That attack, which killed 21 people, most of them European tourists, was carried out by Tunisians who had fought in Afghanistan and were linked to Al Qaeda. It prompted Mr. Ben Ali's government to crack down on Islamist groups. After Mr. Ben Ali was overthrown, leaders of the group that mounted the Djerba attack were among hundreds of prisoners freed in an amnesty, and the group is active again.