Seifeddine Rezgui, the 23-year-old student of electrical engineering who murdered 38 tourists in Tunisia on June 26th, trained at an Islamic State (IS) camp in Libya with the two gunmen who killed 22 people at the national Bardo museum on March 18th, a high-ranking Tunisian official said on Tuesday.
“It has been confirmed that the attacker trained in Libya with weapons at the same period as the Bardo attackers,” Rafik Chelli, the secretary of state for the interior ministry said. “He crossed the border secretly.”
Mr Chelli said Rezgui left his studies at Kairouan University to travel to the western Libyan town of Sabratha, the site of famed Roman ruins, in January, which is when the two Bardo attackers were there.
Sabratha is one of several places in Libya where jihadi groups, including IS, have training camps.
Libya descended into civil war after a British and French-led offensive overthrew the late dictator Muammar Gadafy.
British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said the spread of IS into “ungoverned” territory in Libya was a factor in the June 26th massacre, in which 30 Britons are believed to have died.
Threat realised
“As [IS] has spread across Libya in this ungoverned space, it has posed a threat not just to us, but to the neighbouring countries, which sadly we have seen realised in this attack in Tunisia,” Mr Hammond said.
The Tunisian health ministry said it had identified only 27 of the 38 people killed by Rezgui, including 19 British, three Irish, one Belgian, two Germans, a Russian and a Portuguese citizen. The Press Association confirmed the British death toll had reached 24, but said it was expected to rise to 30.
Because Tunisian authorities are extremely rigorous in demanding evidence such as dental and medical records and DNA, national governments – including Ireland with regard to three Irish victims – are aware of the true numbers of dead before they are confirmed by the Tunisians.
British prime minister David Cameron called Taoiseach Enda Kenny on Tuesday. Mr Cameron’s spokeswoman said the two leaders had agreed on the need for governments to fight Islamic extremism and to support democracies such as Tunisia.
The last of four seriously wounded Britons were flown back to the UK on Tuesday. Downing Street said repatriation of remains would begin on Wednesday.
Britain will observe a minute’s silence for the victims at noon on Friday, one week after the atrocity. Flags will fly at half mast over Buckingham Palace and government departments.
Downing Street said Britain would assist the Tunisian investigation rather than conduct its own investigation into the attack. Twenty-seven British officials are in Tunisia for this purpose.
No second gunman
Tunisian authorities said forensic evidence showed all the victims of the attack were shot with the same gun, refuting eyewitness reports of a second gunman.
Rezgui received help from accomplices before the attack, they said. They are interrogating seven suspected associates, and have released photographs of two wanted men.
Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi (88) promised an investigation into security lapses in an interview with Europe 1 radio station.
“It is true we were surprised by this affair,” he said of the massacre on Kantawi Beach. “[Security forces] 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 July 1st.”
The month of Ramadan began on June 18th.
Tourism minister Salma Loumi estimated that Tunisia would lose at least €462 million of its expected annual tourism earnings because of the Sousse attack.
