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Tunisia attack: police arrest eight people Tunisia attack: police arrest eight people on suspicion of aiding gunman
(about 3 hours later)
Tunisian security forces have arrested eight people suspected of having links to the jihadi killing of foreign tourists at a beach resort last week, a minister has said. Tunisian authorities have detained eight people on suspicion of aiding the gunman who opened fire on a beach in Sousse last Friday, and are searching for two others who may be planning attacks after training with the killer in Libya, according to senior officials.
“Eight people with direct links to the carrying out of the operation, including a woman, have been arrested,” Kamel Jendoubi, the minister in charge of government relations with civil society, told a press conference. Seifeddine Rezgui is believed to have acted alone when he killed 38 tourists at the Marhaba Imperial hotel, but security forces have promised to bring to justice those who helped him prepare for the slaughter.
Jendoubi said 12 people in total had been detained since the attack, but four have since been released. The efforts to trace and dismantle the support network behind Tunisia’s bloodiest attack in recent history, responsibility for which was claimed by Islamic State after the gunman died, have become more urgent amid fears of another massacre.
A second government minister, Lazhar Akremi, had told reporters late on Wednesday that 12 people suspected of links to the attack had been arrested and police were searching for two more. Authorities believe Rezgui learned how to use his gun at the same jihadi training camp as two men who killed 21 foreign tourists at a museum in March. They fear a third sleeper cell, formed at the same time, could still be lying in wait.
“This is a group who were trained in Libya, and who had the same objective. Two attacked the Bardo and one attacked Sousse,” Akremi, minister for parliamentary relations, told reporters. “This is a group who were trained in Libya, and who had the same objective. Two attacked the Bardo and one attacked Sousse,” Lazhar Akremi, minister for parliamentary relations, told reporters late on Wednesday. “Police are hunting for two more.”
Jendoubi said: “The whole of the network behind the operation has been uncovered.” It was not clear if those two were the same men featured on wanted notices earlier this week.
Friday’s attack at Port El Kantaoui south of Tunis, carried out by the 23-year-old student, Seifeddine Rezgui, was claimed by Islamic State, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq. Several people thought to be connected to the attack have already been interrogated in Tunisia. “Twelve suspects were questioned, of whom eight continue in detention, one a woman,” junior minister Kamel Jendoubi said at a news conference in Tunis on Thursday.
Thirty of the victims were Britons. Jendoubi said British authorities were assisting with the investigation. “As part of the security cooperation between Tunisia and Britain, 10 British investigators are working on the probe,” he said. Formal charges are still some way off, however. Any case against accomplices will be put together by an investigating magistrate, and police have not yet referred any of the suspects to that team.
After the attack the government pledged to boost security around hotels, beaches and attractions. “We have deployed 1,377 armed security agents at hotels and on beaches,” Jendoubi said. Tourism is a vital part of Tunisia’s weak economy, and the government has been keen to reassure potential visitors they will be protected, with security beefed up at beaches and tourist resorts, and nearly 1,400 extra police on patrol.
Thirty-eight foreigners were killed in last Friday’s attack before the gunman was shot by police. Eight Britons killed in the attack were brought back to the UK on Wednesday and more will be flown back on Thursday. But the government is yet to provide a detailed account of how the massacre unfolded. Tunisian security forces have come under criticism for their slow response to the attack. Police arrived so late to the scene that the gunman had doubled back on the path of his rampage and wandered out of the hotel on his own.
In March, two gunmen killed 21 people at the Tunis Bardo museum, before they were also shot. Thirty of the 38 victims were British, and Jendoubi also promised greater cooperation with UK authorities in fighting terrorism. Several British police officers were already helping with the investigation in Sousse, he added.
At least 3,000 Tunisians are thought have gone to Syria and Iraq to join radical jihadi groups, including Islamic State, more than from any other country.