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Tunisia gunman trained in Libya at same time as Bardo museum attackers Tunisia gunman trained in Libya at same time as Bardo museum attackers
(about 2 hours later)
The gunman who killed 38 tourists, mostly Britons, in a beach attack last Friday was trained in neighbouring Libya at the same time as the attackers who targeted the Bardo museum in March, one of Tunisia’s top security officials has said. Tunisian authorities have said the gunman who killed 38 tourists in Sousse on Friday was trained at the same Libyan jihadist camp as the two suicide gunmen who attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis in March.
Rafik Chelli told Associated Press on Tuesday that Seifeddine Rezgui, an electrical engineering student at Kairouan university, crossed the border in January and trained near Sabratha, a town in north-west Libya. The Libyan link was disclosed by senior security official Rafik Chelli who told Associated Press that Seifeddine Rezgui, who carried out Friday’s beach hotel attack, trained at an Islamic State base near the western town of Sabratha in January.
The two attackers who carried out the Bardo museum attack in Tunis that killed 22 people were there at the same time.
The shootings near the resort town of Sousse were the worst terrorist attack in Tunisia’s history and have devastated the country’s vital tourism sector.
On Tuesday, the Tunisian president, Beji Caid Essebsi, said the attack had come days before the country planned to implement heightened security measures for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, but those plans had not anticipated an assault on tourist beaches.
Related: Tunisia attack - the unanswered questionsRelated: Tunisia attack - the unanswered questions
“Investigations show Saif Rezgui was in contact with terrorists in Libya and that he is likely to have trained in a Libyan camp,” he said.
Also training at the base at the same time were the two gunmen who killed 22 people in an attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis three months ago, said Chelli.
The claim highlights the growing link between terrorists in both countries, with a growing stream of Tunisians smuggling themselves into Libya to join the ranks of Islamic State.
Meanwhile, security forces are on alert across Tunisia after police released the names and photographs of two alleged Rezgui accomplices who are suspected of aiding his attack. They are both on the run and are presumed to be armed.
At least 21 Britons are known to have died when 23-year-old Rezgui rampaged through the luxury Imperial Mahaba hotel on the Sousse beachfront.
Investigators are unsure of how much help he had. Seven people have been arrested on suspicion of aiding Rezgui, with Rafik al Tayari, a 24-year-old business co-ordinator from Tunis, and Mohammed al Charadi, 23, a student Bizerte, now being hunted. Wanted posters of the two men have been circulated throughout the country.
Related: Tunisia beach attack: witnesses say more than one gunman involved
The Libya revelations will pose a challenge for David Cameron, who promised a “full spectrum response” at the weekend after attacks that saw the greatest loss of life for Britons since the 7/7 bombings. While Britain has joined the United States and other nations in bombing Isis positions in Iraq, the west has so far refrained from taking military action against Isis in Libya.
The Isis base where the gunmen are believed to have trained is near Sabratha, 40 miles west of Tripoli, at Al Ajaylat, a former military compound on the outskirts of the city. In recent months, the area has been engulfed in the country’s ongoing civil war and it is unclear if Isis is still in the area.
Jihadist units from the Al Ajaylat base were blamed for the cold-blooded killing of British oil worker Mark de Salis, whose body was found on a nearby beach together with his New Zealand girlfriend Lynn Howie in January last year. Both had driven to the beach for a picnic and were found face down on the sand having been killed at close range.
Libyan sources said at the time that local police were too frightened of the jihadist units to investigate the murders which were never solved.
The base was home to the west Libyan branch of Ansar al Sharia, the organisation blamed by Washington for the murder of US ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi in 2012. Late last year, the unit re-flagged itself as part of Isis.
UK officials still believe only one gunman was responsible for the shootings in Sousse but some of the Mahaba survivors insist there was a second gunman present.
Rezgui, who was shot by security forces outside the hotel, was clean shaven, but witness Tom Richards, from Cheshire, who came face-to-face with a gunman in the hotel, insists the man he saw had long hair and a prominent beard. Hotel staff and lifeguards said they remembered only a lone gunman on the beach itself.
Moez Afra, who saved the life of a badly British man by dragging him across the sand to safety during the attack, said a single gunman began firing on the beach, then moved into the hotel before returning to the beach again.
Afra and other beach staff on duty that day say they are unsure how Rezgui got to the beach; lifeguards on both sides of the hotel insist they did not see Rezgui pass. “We all know each other; we would have noticed a stranger,” Afra insists.
Daniel Ben Said, who supervises jet skis on the beach and used his motorboat to pluck a British man who had been wounded in the arm from the sea, scotched reports that Rezgui had reached the beach using a boat or jet ski. “Not a jet ski,” he said. “I would have seen it. I was right here.”
The team of British police officers in Tunisia are concentrating on identifying the dead and the repatriation of their bodies, which will begin on Wednesday.
The British police investigation is officially limited to providing information for coroners who will hold a series of inquests into the deaths.
All the wounded Britons have been repatriated, including four severely injured people who were brought back by a Royal Air Force C17 transport plane. Cameron’s office said the bodies of the dead would be flown back from Wednesday.
The Tunisian president, Beji Caid Essebsi, said the attack had come days before the country planned to implement heightened security measures for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, but those plans had not anticipated an assault on tourist beaches.
The tourism minister has predicted that the industry will lose $500m (£317m) this year.The tourism minister has predicted that the industry will lose $500m (£317m) this year.
In an interview with Europe 1 radio on Tuesday, Essebsi said an investigation was under way into security failures and armed police would patrol tourist beaches. Army reservists have been called up, Essebsi added. In an interview with Europe 1 radio, Essebsi said an investigation was under way into security failures. Armed police would patrol tourist beaches and army reservists had been called up, he added.
He said: “It is not a perfect system; it is true we were surprised by this affair. They took measures for the month of Ramadan but never did they think the attack would be on the beaches against tourists and the system of protection was set to start 1 July.” Essebsi said: “It is not a perfect system; it is true we were surprised by this affair. They took measures for the month of Ramadan but never did they think the attack would be on the beaches against tourists and the system of protection was set to start 1 July.”
Essebsi, 88, is a veteran of Tunisia’s pre-revolutionary regime and was elected last autumn on a platform of restoring security and dignity to the country.Essebsi, 88, is a veteran of Tunisia’s pre-revolutionary regime and was elected last autumn on a platform of restoring security and dignity to the country.
Rezgui, 23, pulled out an assault rifle at a beach near Sousse and killed 38 tourists, at least 21 of whom were British, according to the UK prime minister, David Cameron. The rampage continued for about half-an-hour before he was shot by police. Additional reporting by Vikram Dodd on London
All the wounded Britons have been repatriated, including four severely injured people who were brought back by a Royal Air Force C17 transport plane. Cameron’s office said the bodies of the dead would be flown back from Wednesday.
Since the attack, the Tunisian authorities have shut 80 unregulated mosques believed to be preaching radical views, and have considered closing organisations and political parties promoting ideas that run counter to the constitution.
“What is threatened is our way of life and society,” Essebsi said, praising Tunisia as one of the only democracies in the region. “It is not easy being the exception, we should be the model, but it is a model not yet accepted by the others.”
Related: Tunisia beach attack: witnesses say more than one gunman involved
He said Tunisia needed more assistance in securing its frontiers, especially with Libya, home to supporters of Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a press conference late on Monday, Samia Elloumi, the tourism minister, outlined a series of measures to cushion the industry from the expected loss.
She said debts and taxes for tourism companies would be rescheduled, new loans guaranteed by the state would be offered and transport taxes for non-resident Tunisians would be cut.
Most importantly for non-residents, the $15 departure tax will be scrapped and visa requirements will be lifted for visitors from China, India, Iran and Jordan. The current tourism promotion campaign will also be pulled.
Elloumi said: “It would be indecent and not send a positive message to put out such a campaign while the bodies of the victims are still there and people remain in shock.”