The News Minute | March 28, 2015 | 1:40 p.m. IST
A “misleading” report by CNN and a flurry of responses on social media led the Tunisian authorities to clarify that the Star Wars’ sets in the country hadn’t been taken over by the Islamic State.
According to a report in The Hindu, the President of the Star Wars fan club in Tunisia was alerted to the report by friends. The report by CNN said that the sets where Luke Skywalker’s home was were vulnerable as they had been made a “way station” for IS trooping coming into the country from Libya.
Tunisia was the victim of a terrorist attack last week after 21 people were killed last week in an attack on a museum.
“I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that all is normal, in fact we’ve seen a big influx of foreign tourists and Tunisians”, said Col. Mokhtar Hammami of the National Guard to The Associated Press.
The story was reported widely and shared on social media even though the sets are reportedly hundreds of miles away.
New star wars, star, earth, wars, only, isis, islamic state, remains, tunisia, committed GIF http://t.co/03o3VUA1eY pic.twitter.com/uJEhDWBgIA
— Twiii Tttr (@twiiitttr) March 28, 2015I remember driving through that part of Tunisia, on my way to Libya. "This looks like Star Wars," I said, before passing the "Tatouine" sign
— Doug Saunders (@DougSaunders) March 24, 2015And this is how Tunisia celebrates Star Wars day:
#StarWars parade in #tunisia #StarWarsDay #MayThe4thBeWithYou pic.twitter.com/9va9VkFsQq
— Star Wars Tunisia (@StarWarsTunisia) April 30, 2014