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Tunisian police hunt for accomplices to tourist beach attack Tunisia attack prompts one of biggest UK counter-terror operations since 7/7
(about 2 hours later)
Investigators in Tunisia are searching for one or more accomplices in the attack on a luxury hotel in the resort city of Sousse that killed at least 38,as police question four people close to the gunman. More than 600 British police have been deployed in response to Friday’s beach massacre in Tunisia in one of the biggest counter-terrorism operations since the London bombings on 7 July 2005.
An interior ministry spokesman said on Sunday that investigators were “sure” the attacker – 24-year-old student Seifeddine Rezgui, who was killed by police on Friday after his assault on the Imperial Marhaba hotel – had help. Almost 400 officers were at UK airports over the weekend to speak to potential witnesses returning from the scene of the attack on a luxury hotel in the resort city of Sousse that claimed the lives of at least 38 people, including at least 15 Britons.
Mohammed Ali Aroui told the Associated Press that “we are sure that others helped but did not participate” except indirectly. He said Rezgui’s father and three roommates in Kairouan, where he studied, had been detained for questioning. Sixteen senior Metropolitan police detectives, forensic specialists and family liaison officers arrived in Tunisia over the weekend and more are set to join them to assist in the investigation and prevent possible further attacks.
Meanwhile, the British government has sent a team of police and security experts to Tunisia to help guard against further terror attacks in the Sousse beach resort, the home secretary, Theresa May, has confirmed. Tunisian investigators said on Sunday that they were seeking one or more accomplices of the 24-year-old gunman, Seifeddine Rezgui, who was shot dead by police after his assault on the Imperial Marhaba hotel.They have questioned the student’s father and three of his college roommates. .
The move came as the UK’s former counter-terrorism chief warned that emboldened jihadis were plotting to kill westerners anywhere in the world, and that stopping them from accessing public areas such as beaches was near-impossible. Mohammed Ali Aroui, an interior ministry spokesman told the Associated Press: “We are sure that others helped but did not participate”.
Peter Clarke, who was in charge of Scotland Yard’s response to the 7/7 London bombings, said terrorists’ choice of targets had widened. He said: “It’s everything from government installations, to nightclubs to the energy sector, to holiday destinations. The common theme is to kill as many people as possible.” New video footage emerged on Sunday that appeared to show Rezgui running across the beach immediately after the killings.
“How do you protect a coastline?” Clarke said of the beach attack. “There is going to be vulnerability, that is just a fact of life.” Speaking after a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency planning committee in London, the home secretary, Theresa May, said an expanded British security team in Tunisia would “look at protective security arrangements around tourist resorts” and the Foreign Office warned further attacks were possible.
He said he did not believe Britons would be put off taking holidays abroad, but might seek further reassurances from their travel companies about the threats facing places they were traveling to. The killings represent the largest loss of British life to terrorism since the July 2005 London bombings. Scotland Yard said it was tightening security and protection at Wimbledon and other “key sites, businesses and public places around the UK to help ensure they are safe for visitors and workers”.
Clarke said the gunman would have visited the scene before his rampage. He said: “It’s very unlikely an attack like this [could happen] without any planning or reconnaissance.” “The national policing response to the attack in Tunisia is likely to be one of the largest counter-terrorism deployments seen since July 2005,” said the Met’s assistant commissioner, Mark Rowley.
Following a meeting of the government’s Cobra security committee on Sunday, May said the government was increasing the size of its security team in Tunisia to “look at protective security arrangement around tourist resorts” and which will “assess additional security requirements”. Related: Tunisia beach attack: the victims
Tunisia’s interior ministry announced that 1,000 extra officers would patrol hotels and beach resorts. Armed officers were visible outside the hotel where Friday’s attack took place. As more of the British dead were named on Sunday, 60 family liaison officers were deployed in the UK to accompany with relatives of those killed and injured.
The Foreign Office has warned of further potential attacks in Tunisia, while Scotland Yard announced it was tightening security at key events in the UK – including Wimbledon, which starts on Monday and will run over the tenth anniversary of the 7 July bombings. Three generations of the same family were named among the dead on Sunday. Nineteen-year-old student Joel Richards, his uncle Adrian Evans, 49, a gas services manager from Tipton in the West Midlands, and his grandfather, were all killed in the attack.
Amid increasing tensions over the threat posed to Britons by Islamic State, one former head of the British army, Lord Dannatt, said the west should take the fight to the extremist group on the ground, in their heartlands. Carly Lovett, 24, a photographer and beauty blogger Sue Davey and Scott Chalkley, a couple in their 40s and Lisa Burbridge from Whickham, Gateshead were also confirmed dead.
Asked if enough was being done militarily to defeat Isis, the peer told BBC1’s Sunday Politics: “The short answer is no. We are not doing enough right across the piste.” Trudy Jones, from Blackwood in Gwent, south Wales, was named by her local MP. Jim and Ann McQuire from Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire and Bruce Wilkinson, 72, from Goole, East Yorkshire, were also killed.
“On the military lines we have got to do much more to support those in the region who are fighting Islamist extremists on the ground,” he added. “Yes, we can support them from the air, we should be doing more of that, but we should be doing more to support them on the ground as well. The Foreign Office has urged travellers to Tunisia to be especially vigilant. It said: “Further terrorist attacks in Tunisia, including in tourist resorts, are possible, including by individuals who are unknown to the authorities and whose actions are inspired by terrorist groups via social media”.
The Tunisian authorities have deployed 1,000 extra police and military to guard beaches and resort hotels, but the UK’s former counter-terrorism chief wsaid on Sunday that emboldened jihadis were plotting to kill westerners anywhere in the world, and that stopping them from accessing public areas such as beaches was near-impossible.
Peter Clarke, who was in charge of Scotland Yard’s response to the 7/7 bombings, said terrorists’ choice of targets had widened. “It’s everything from government installations to nightclubs, to the energy sector to holiday destinations. The common theme is to kill as many people as possible,” he said.
Related: British death toll from Tunisia attack set to rise above 15, says Theresa May
“How do you protect a coastline? There is going to be vulnerability, that is just a fact of life.”
In the UK, Scotland Yard said security would be more stringent and more visible than last year at Wimbledon, when the overall terror threat in was “substantial” rather than “severe”, the second highest level, as it is now.
Extra officers will patrol the area around the event, which attracts as many as to 40,000 spectators a day. Roads will be closed and “a highly mobile reserve that can respond to emerging incidents” will be in place, a spokesman said. Uniformed and plainclothes officers will be on duty.
Security had also been tightened at the Pride march and the Armed Forces Day parade in London on Saturday, Rowley said: “It is right that we keep our security plans under continual review to help protect and reassure the public.
“There has been a significant increase in the level of counter-terrorist policing activity in the UK. Last year, there were over 330 arrests, about one a day, and 89 people were convicted for terror-related offences.”
Amid the increasing tensions over the threat posed to Britons by Islamic State, the former head of the British army, Lord Dannatt, said the west should take the fight to the extremist group on the ground, in their heartlands.
“We have got to do much more to support those in the region who are fighting Islamist extremists on the ground,” he told BBC1’s Sunday Politics. “Yes, we can support them from the air, we should be doing more of that, but we should be doing more to support them on the ground as well.
“More training teams, better equipment and really giving those who are willing to fight the best chance of succeeding, because to succeed on the ground is the really important thing to do.”“More training teams, better equipment and really giving those who are willing to fight the best chance of succeeding, because to succeed on the ground is the really important thing to do.”
Over the weekend, security was tightened at the Pride march in London and the Armed Forces Day parade on Saturday. Scotland Yard said security would be more stringent and more visible at Wimbledon than last year, when the overall terror threat in the UK was “substantial” rather than “severe”, the second highest level, as it is now. Security services across the west were alarmed throughout 2014 by the growth in the Islamic State’s potency, and its ability to attract western youngsters to its cause. They point out that al-Qaida also still poses a substantial threat.
Extra officers will patrol the area around the tennis tournament, there will be road closures and “a highly mobile reserve that can respond to emerging incidents”, a Scotland Yard spokesman said. Officers will be working in uniform and in plain clothes.
The tightening of security around the tournament, which attracts up to 40,000 spectators a day, is part of a wider increase in police vigilance. The Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, national policing lead for counter-terrorism, said specialist officers were strengthening “protection and security of key sites, business and public places around the UK to help ensure they are safe for visitors and workers”.
He said: “It is right that we keep our security plans under continual review to help protect and reassure the public. There has been a significant increase in the level of counter terrorist policing activity in the UK. Last year, there were over 330 arrests – about one a day – and 89 people were convicted for terror-related offences.”
The Foreign Office has urged travellers to Tunisia to be “especially vigilant”. Its advice said: “Further terrorist attacks in Tunisia, including in tourist resorts, are possible, including by individuals who are unknown to the authorities and whose actions are inspired by terrorist groups via social media”.
UK security services believe an attack on the British mainland is a matter of “when”, not “if”. For about nine months the level of British police and security service efforts have been running at an intensity equivalent to that if there had been an attack. Counter-terror officials have been working consistently at a high tempo, with detectives making nearly an arrest a day of people on suspicion of terrorism offences.
Security services across the west were alarmed throughout 2014 by the growth in the potency of Islamic State, and its ability to attract western youngsters to its cause. They point out that al-Qaida still poses a substantial threat.
In August 2014, the UK terrorist level was raised to its second highest level of “severe”, meaning a terrorist attack is highly likely. May said the heightened alert was “related to developments in Syria and Iraq, where terrorist groups are planning attacks against the west”.In August 2014, the UK terrorist level was raised to its second highest level of “severe”, meaning a terrorist attack is highly likely. May said the heightened alert was “related to developments in Syria and Iraq, where terrorist groups are planning attacks against the west”.
Attacks in Sydney, New York and Ottawa in late 2014, then Paris in January 2015, demonstrated terrorists had the ability to strikeon western soil. Those attacks ranged from an individual seemingly acting alone, to a group co-ordinating their efforts and carrying out an attack involving a degree of sophistication. Attacks in Sydney, New York and Ottawa in late 2014, then Paris in January 2015, demonstrated that terrorists had the ability to strike on western soil. The attacks ranged from an individual seemingly acting alone, to a group coordinating their efforts and carrying out an attack involving a significant degree of sophistication.
The danger from so called leaderless jihad, where jihadi propaganda incites “lone wolves”, has added to the threat from more directed and sophisticated plots. The Islamist terror threat has twice claimed lives on Britain’s streets in recent years. The 2005 London attacks by four suicide bombers killed 52 people and left 750 injured, while soldier Lee Rigby was killed near the Woolwich military barracks in south London in May 2013 by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowlale. The danger from so called leaderless jihad, where propaganda incites “lone wolves”, has added to the threat from more directed and sophisticated plots. Terrorism has claimed lives on Britain’s streets twice in recent years. The 2005 London attacks by four suicide bombers killed 52 people and left 750 injured, and the soldier Lee Rigby was killed near Woolwich military barracks in south London in May 2013 by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowlale.