Tunisia gunman trained in Libya with museum attackers

TUNIS, TUNISIA — The young college student who killed 38 tourists in a Tunisian seaside resort was in a jihadist training camp in Libya at the same time as the two attackers who hit the national museum in March, a security official said Tuesday.

The revelation confirms repeated fears that the strong presence of the Islamic State group in Tunisia’s chaotic neighbour is a direct threat to the country.

“It has been confirmed that the attacker trained in Libya with weapons at the same period as the Bardo attackers,” said Rafik Chelli, the secretary of state for the Interior Ministry. “He crossed the borders secretly.”

Chelli said the 24-year-old master’s student in electrical engineering left his studies at Kairouan University and went to the western Libyan town of Sabratha in January, which is when the two young men that carried out the museum attack were there. Sabratha, also the site of famed Roman ruins, is known to contain training camps for jihadists. The March attack on the museum killed 22 people, mostly tourists, and there have been repeated criticisms of the Tunisian government for not doing more to prevent another attack on visiting foreigners.

President Beji Caid Essebsi revealed Tuesday that heightened security measures had been scheduled to be put in place just days after the attack on the resort in Sousse. “It is not a perfect system — it is true we were surprised by this affair,” he told Europe 1 radio.

Tunisia’s vital tourism sector suffered a staggering blow from the attack last week. At least 21 of the victims are British, according to the latest figures from British Prime Minister David Cameron, though that number is expected to rise.