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Tunis, Tunisia Radicalized, trained in Libya, and already in police files, the two young men who shot dead 21 people at a renowned Tunisian museum embody what many see as the main threat to this North African country bent on building democracy.

Celebrating the 59th anniversary of its independence Friday, Tunisia was coming to grips with the hundreds of disaffected youths who have sought training in weapons and battle skills in its chaotic eastern neighbor and elsewhere and are returning to threaten the country.

"Tunisia has taken important steps in the political and democratic arena, which have been praised by the entire world. We must continue on this path," said President Beji Caid Essebsi in a televised holiday address.

The Wednesday attack on the National Bardo Museum, which left 20 foreigners, a Tunisian special forces officer and the two gunmen dead, was a "great disaster," he said, but pointed out that security measures were already being set up to prevent similar attacks in the future.

The gunmen, Hatem Khachnaoui and Yassine Laabidi, had slipped across the border in December to reach one of many militia camps in Libya, Rafik Chelli, a top Interior Ministry official said in a TV interview. Since the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi three years ago, Libya has fallen into chaos and is now awash in well-armed militias fighting for control.

On the anniversary of Tunisia's independence from France, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve became the first high level foreign official to visit the country in the wake of the attacks and he promised Tunisia material and intelligence help in fighting terrorism and strengthening its border security.

"The state has been considerably weakened by its porous borders between Libya and Tunisia," he told reporters. "The control of borders is important and we can work on it by mobilizing our skills and means."

The attackers followed a well-worn trail trekked by many young Tunisians who were disillusioned when the promises of the 2011 revolution were slow in coming and were radicalized in extremist mosques or through online religious propaganda.

With authorities tightening control on airports, it was the land journey across the Libyan border that these young, jobless men would take, with many staying to join the ranks of radical groups in Libya.

Increasingly over the past year, there have been reports about Tunisians killed in the Libyan fighting.

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Trained in Libya, two young men returned to Tunisia for attack (+video)