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Tunis museum attacks: police hunt third suspect Tunis museum attacks: police hunt third suspect in shootings
(35 minutes later)
A third attacker in the deadly assault on the Bardo museum is on the run, Tunisia’s president said on Sunday, declaring his country at war with the extremists who killed 21 people at one of North Africa’s most revered cultural institutions. Tunisia’s president says a third gunman was involved in last week’s attack on the Bardot museum that left 23 dead, as CCTV footage was released showing the gunmen stalking victims in the museum.
President Beji Caid Essebsi said the attack involved “three aggressors” and the third man escaped. He was speaking live with French network iTele from inside the museum, its elaborate tilework visible behind him. Beji Caid Essebsi said in an interview with French television that the attacker, as yet unnamed, was “on the run”.
Tunisia’s interior ministry released security camera footage of Wednesday’s attack, showing two gunmen walking through the museum carrying assault rifles and bags. At one point they encounter a third man with a backpack walking down a flight of stairs. They briefly acknowledge each other before walking in opposite directions. A manhunt is in progress, with police patrols in Tunis stopping people to check identities. The mood is calm, the capital’s streets bedecked with red and white Tunisian flags after muted independence day celebrations on Friday.
Police responding to the attack shot and killed the two gunmen. They were identified as Tunisians in their 20s who had trained in Libya. Authorities have released a photograph of the man they say helped travel agent Yassin Labidi, 20, and accomplice Saber Khachnaou, 26, carry out the attack that left 23 dead, including 19 foreigners.
Essebsi said the extremists who have recruited about 3,000 Tunisians to fight in Iraq and Syria have no credible connection to Islamic belief. He said his country was at war with them. “When war is brought upon us, we will wage war,” he said. The interior ministry released CCTV footage showing the gunmen inside the museum, which is adjacent to Tunisia’s parliament, stalking its halls for victims.
The minute-long video shows the men, holding machine guns, moving around the marble halls, showing no sign of tension, minutes after they opened fire on tourist buses outside the museum entrance.
The men, one in a red hat and tracksuit bottoms, the other with a baseball cap and jacket, are seen bumping into a third man with a backpack walking down the stairs. After acknowledging him, the gunmen allow him to walk free. It is unclear if this is a lucky escape, or evidence of the third suspect that police are hunting.
Police had announced the arrest of 20 people suspected of helping the gunmen, who, they said on Friday, had been trained at terrorist camps in neighbouring Libya.
Meanwhile, the task of identifying and repatriating the bodies of 19 foreign tourists continues. The bodies of four Italians were returning to Italy on Sunday. The bodies of 14 foreigners remain in the morgue, with the victims including citizens from Britain, Colombia, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and Spain. Three Tunisians died in the attack, in which the gunmen opened fire on tourist buses before blasting their way into the museum, killing and wounding dozens more.