TUNIS – Najem Gharsalli, Tunisia Interior Minister, on Monday said security forces had arrested several suspects connected with the Friday’s gun attack on a Tunisian beach resort that killed 38 foreign tourists.
Gharsalli, speaking alongside the British, French and German interior ministers at the hotel where a lone gunman carried out the atrocity, did not specify how many people had been arrested.
The ministers had earlier laid flowers on the beach where most of the victims died and held a moment in silence.
German Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere said that Germany would support Tunisian measures to protect tourists.
“We have come to show our solidarity with this still young and vulnerable democracy. We are determined to show that freedom is stronger than terrorism,’’ he said.
Authorities from Britain confirmed that 18 British nationals and three Irish nationals died in the attack.
Tunisia also confirmed the deaths of a Belgian and a Portuguese citizen, while Germany’s Foreign Ministry said a second German tourist was confirmed to have been among those killed.
British Interior Minister, Theresa May, paid tribute to hotel staff who, had protected guests from the attacker, saying that “perverted ideology” was behind the death and destruction.
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She echoed de Maiziere’s support for Tunisia, a country widely seen as the sole democratic success story of the wave of revolution that washed across the Arab world in 2011.
The Islamic State extremist group, which controls much of Syria and Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack by 24-year old Seifeddin Rezgui.
The group also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed 27 worshippers in a Shiite mosque in Kuwait on the same day. (dpa/NAN)
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