Tunisia: 8 people suspected of direct links to beach attack

[Lite Beer]

Tunisia: 8 people suspected of direct links to beach attack
BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Eight people are in custody in Tunisia, suspected of having direct links to a deadly beach attack that killed 38 people, but four other possible suspects have been released, a minister said Thursday.

The British Foreign Office, meanwhile, raised the death toll of British tourists killed in Friday's attack from 27 to 30. Other European tourists were among the dead. The attack was Tunisia's deadliest ever and threatens to be a devastating blow to its tourism sector.

In Britain, bereaved relatives looked on at an air base in Oxfordshire as a military plane flew home the remains of nine Britons on Thursday, a day after another flight returned eight other bodies.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, in which Tunisian student Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire on a beach in the resort of Sousse. He was later killed by police.

Government minister Kamel Jendoubi told reporters Thursday in Tunis the eight still detained — seven men and one woman — are suspected of direct links to the attack. He did not elaborate on their identities or roles, saying only that the investigation "has allowed us to discover the network behind the operation in Sousse."

The minister also urged greater international terrorism cooperation in a "war ... between democratic Tunisia and an international jihadi movement."

Sofiane Selliki, an official in the prosecutor's office, said no one had been brought before a judge for charges.

A top security official told the AP this week that Rezgui had trained in a jihadi camp in Libya at the same time as the two men who attacked a leading Tunisian museum in March, killing near. That raised fears of more attacks on this North African nation's budding democracy.

More Tunisians — about 3,000 — are believed to have gone to Syria and Iraq to join radical jihadis including the Islamic State group than fighters from any other country.

British vacationers made up the majority of the 38 killed on the beach, and further repatriation flights are expected in coming days.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said earlier that all 30 British victims have been identified. Package holiday firms Thomson and First Choice confirmed that all were their customers.

A minute's silence in memory of the victims will be observed Friday, a week after the rampage, and flags will be flown at half-staff over London's Whitehall and Buckingham Palace.

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Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-07-04

[boomerangutang]

I like hearing about how Tunisian authorities closed down 80 mosques which were run by hell-raising Imans.

Re; the 3,000 Tunisians who went to join Isis. Tunisia can welcome them back by putting them in individual holes in the ground with iron grills at ground level. Keep 'em in there, with a little bottle of water, and a crust of bread each day, for 400 days and nights. That will give them some time to think about how they're ruining their lives and the lives of others. As for the environment, fogedabowdit: it was destroyed hundreds of years ago.

[sammygood]

i predict this is going to be a thing that will repeat itself, again & again

not a religion of peace or a religion to blow infidels to pieces

[Johnny S]

This so called Religion and their inane followers will eradicated in the next 20 years - hopefully sooner ...

[boomerangutang]

This so called Religion and their inane followers will eradicated in the next 20 years - hopefully sooner ...

I have a sage farang friend who also thinks religion will fade out in the near future. I don't think so. People, as a species, need religion, like a wolf pack needs an alpha male. People can physically survive (without outside influences), as can wolves, but they feel a need to be told how to think, and they need myths. Few people are evolved enough, mentally, to deal with their own minds - without outside structure imposed.

Though not as actively harmful as Muslim extremism, there are two interesting belief systems which offer a window on the extremes of weird philosophies that groups of people embrace: Scientology and N.Korea's personality worship. If we were to speak to an intelligent species from another solar sytem - and describe how Islam, Scientology or N.Korea function, the aliens would laugh in incredulity. They'd say, "No way. That's too ridiculous. That can't be true. No entity with a brain can believe in such things. Don't tell me such lies, ha ha ha."

[dabhand]

It is now being reported that there was a failed suicide bomber attack (only killed himself) on the very same beach less than two years ago.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11718614/Why-werent-we-told-of-Sousse-suicide-bomber.html

Never mind the lack of Tunisian government security in the area (disgraceful as it was) or the totally inadequate UK government travel advice, just what risk assessments were carried out by the travel companies? They have a clear duty of care to their customers and by trying to hide behind the fig leaf of 'following UK government advice' is inadequate in the extreme.

If I had relatives involved with this horrific incident, and thankfully I do not, I would be looking to ask some searching questions of these travel companies, with a view to hitting them where they hurt the most.