Hunt for third Tunisia museum attacker

 

Tunisia's president said a hunt is underway for a third attacker after more than 20 people were killed by gunmen at a museum in the country's capital last week.
Speaking with French TV network iTele from inside the Bardo Museum on Sunday, President Beji Caid Essebsi said the attack involved "three aggressors" and the third man escaped, the Associated Press reported.

 

Surveillance video of two gunmen walking through the museum was released by the Tunisian Interior Ministry on Saturday. The footage shows the attackers carrying bags and assault rifles. They encounter a man as he comes down some stairs and point their weapons at him, before he flees.
The gunmen stormed the museum, a popular tourist attraction in the capital of Tunis on Wednesday, taking hostages and gunning down civilians before two attackers were killed by police. The death toll has risen from 23 to 25, according to media reports. Most of the dead were foreign tourists, at least 17 of them from cruise ships.


On Saturday, authorities said more than 20 suspected militants were arrested, including 10 believed to have been directly involved in the attack.
The slain gunmen were identified as Yassine Laabidi and Hatem Khachnaoui, both Tunisians. Prime Minister Habib Essid said Laabidi had been flagged by intelligence authorities, although not for "anything special."
The Islamic State released an online recording claiming responsibility for the shooting rampage. However social media accounts linked to a group in Tunisia affiliated with al-Qaeda also published purported details of the operation, Reuters reported.


Laabidi's brother on Saturday described him as a sociable person who "enjoyed a drink with mates," according to the BBC.
He said his brother was "brainwashed by swines who send young men to their death in the name of religion," the broadcaster reported. Rafik Chelli, the Interior Ministry's top security official, said the two dead gunmen trained in camps in Libya before the attack.
More than 3,000 Tunisians have joined Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, the Tunisian government estimates. Training camps in neighboring Libya provide easy access to the fight for Tunisian Muslims discontent with the fledgling democracy in Tunis.