Gunman smiled as he shot tourists: witnesses

PORT EL KANTAOUI, Tunisia, June 29, (AFP): He was dressed like a tourist, but his intentions were deadly. Witnesses said Sunday the gunman who mowed town tourists at a Tunisian beach smiled as he pulled the trigger.

Armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, the man who massacred 38 people at a popular beach resort on Friday embarked on a murderous rampage witnesses say lasted more than 40 minutes.

Amir Ben Hadj Hassine lives right next to the beach of the Riu Imperial Marhaba hotel in Port el Kantaoui where the killings took place.

“Some 40 to 45 minutes went by between the sound of the first bullets until he was killed,” the 22-year-old told AFP, still shocked at having seen lifeless bodies sprawled on the sand.

His 16-year-old cousin Malek said he saw the gunman unleash his killing spree.

“I was at the beach. I saw the guy put his parasol down in the sand, squatting just like anyone would to set it up.

“But suddenly he grabbed a Kalashnikov, and started shooting at the sand,” the teenager said.

“Everyone stood up to see what was happening, and then we saw him shoot at the tourists, with a big smile on his face.

“We ran for cover, and he headed towards the Imperial Hotel,” he said.

Seif, 21, described what he called an “incredible” scene.

“The guy was really at ease — you’d think he was dancing or listening to music as he walked along,” he said.

“At one point we were very close to him, but he didn’t shoot at us. He said: ‘You go, I didn’t come for you’.”

Several witnesses said the gunman singled out tourists on the beach, but according to the health ministry, seven Tunisians were also wounded.

After shooting at people on the beach, the gunman — whom the authorities have identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, a university student born in 1992 — headed towards the hotel itself.

Calm

“I saw the guy come into the hotel, totally calm,” Amir Ben Hadj Hassine recalled.

Just then, “a patrol boat came in from the sea with two security guards on board. One was armed,” he said.

“They didn’t want to get down to start with. But when the shots inside the hotel quietened down, they left the boat.

“We asked the armed agent to come into the hotel, but he was scared and didn’t shoot,” Amir said.

“Then a (hotel) animator took his weapon and tried to shoot at the terrorist from far away. But the weapon didn’t work.”

Seif also said he saw what happened.

“The animator took the policeman’s weapon and headed towards the hotel to shoot the gunman. He told the policeman: ‘Give me your weapon, let me kill him’,” he said.

Hassen, who oversees parasailing at the nearby El Mouradi Palace Hotel, was at the scene with clients when the attack began.

But his account differs slightly. He remembers “seeing the security guard fall over as he stepped backwards and hit a parasol”.

“A citizen took his weapon” to “shoot the terrorist”, Hassen said.

Minutes later, Amir saw the attacker return to the beach and calmly walk in front of three hotels.

“I was shocked not to see police, even though this area is surrounded Mali calls for calm: Mali’s government appealed for calm on Monday after jihadists ransacked a town near the Ivory Coast border in the second attack in the south in less than three weeks.

Fighters carrying an Islamist flag took control of part of the town of Fakola on Sunday, attacking security forces and damaging a number of public buildings, including the town hall and police station, according to locals.

A government statement posted on Facebook on Monday said the army had been deployed to the area to hunt down the jihadists, who escaped after by police checkpoints and we’re used to regular patrols,” he said.

“Of course there is a problem — the police didn’t come in time,” he said.

Interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui has refused to comment on such allegations, saying that reinforcements arrived “seven to eight minutes” after the gunman first opened fire.

A university student and fan of breakdancing who worked part-time to fund his studies, Seifeddine Rezgui seemed like a normal young Tunisian man.

So when the 23-year-old was identified as the jihadist gunman behind Friday’s massacre of 38 people at a seaside resort, many of his countrymen were left in shock.

In his hometown of Gaafour, a small city in northwestern Tunisia, friends and family painted a picture of a law-abiding young man who seemed far removed from a jihadist fanatic.

Return

His cousin Nizar told AFP that just the day before the attack he had seen Rezgui in Gaafour, where the young man would return to work as a waiter to finance his studies for a master’s degree at a technical institute in central Tunisia.

“He was normal. He came here, he worked in the cafe, he went home, he went to pray and he hung out with the guys at the cafe,” said Nizar, 32. “All Gaafour was surprised.” Tunisian authorities have admitted that Rezgui was not on their radar, saying there were no indications that he could be planning such an attack.

“He was unknown to our services. His family environment was normal,” ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told private television channel El Hiwar Ettounsi.

In a report on Rezgui, the channel branded him the “enigmatic terrorist”, asking: “How does a university graduate go from being a young man who succeeds in his studies to becoming a terrorist and killer of innocent people?”

At the tiny family home in Gaafour’s poor neighbourhood of Hay Ezzouhour, visitors have been expressing their condolences to Rezgui’s devastated father.

Approached by reporters, he wearily turned them away, saying: “Please, don’t talk to me.”

Like many others in the neighbourhood, Rezgui’s uncle Ali, 71, said he was shocked.

“In 23 years, he never did anything illegal. He finished his classes, he laughed, he’d say hello and go on his way,” he told AFP.

“How did he train? Where did he train? Only God knows. This is what is tormenting us right now,” Ali said.

Many of those who knew Rezgui said he seemed not at all like a “soldier of the caliphate” — as he was dubbed by the Islamic State group when it claimed responsibility for the attack.

A young man from Gaafour said he had met Rezgui at a local youth centre dance club.

“He was a really good breakdancer,” he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity as he feared he would be suspected of links to the attacker.

Tunisian media have aired a video from 2010 showing a young man breakdancing in a cap and identifying him as Rezgui.

Interviewed by Tunisian media, several of his neighbours in Kairouan, where he studied at the Higher Institute of Technological Studies (ISET), said they had not noticed anything unusual.

ending their brief occupation. (AFP)

Chad blasts kill 11: Two blasts rocked Chad’s capital city, killing at least 11 people weeks after suicide bombings killed dozens, residents and an official said Monday.

The first explosion was heard early Monday in the Dinguessou neighborhood of N’Djamena, and the second came minutes later, said resident Souleymane Brahim.

“There were two explosions. The first came around 5:10 a.m. in the morning. It was followed by gunfire. The second came around 5:16 a.m.,” he said. (AP)