Hunt on for third man in Bardo attack
TUNIS: A third attacker in the deadly assault on the Bardo museum is on the run, Tunisia’s president said yesterday, declaring his country at war with the extremists who killed 21 people at one of North Africa’s most revered cultural institutions.
President Beji Caid Essebsi said the attack involved “three aggressors” and the third man escaped. He was speaking live with French network iTele from inside the museum.
Tunisia’s interior ministry released security camera footage of Wednesday’s attack showing two gunmen walking through the museum, carrying assault rifles and bags. At one point they encounter a third man with a backpack walking down a flight of stairs. They briefly acknowledge each other before walking in opposite directions.
Police responding to the attack shot and killed the two gunmen. The dead men were identified as Tunisians in their 20s who had trained in Libya.
Mr Essebsi said the extremists who have recruited about 3,000 Tunisians to fight in Iraq and Syria have no credible connection to Islamic belief. He said his country was at war with them.
“When war is brought upon us, we will wage war,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Essebsi said security “failures” had helped facilitate the deadly attack.
“There were failures” which meant that “the police and intelligence were not systematic enough to ensure the safety of the museum”, Mr Essebsi told the Paris Match weekly in an interview published on Saturday.
Mr Essebsi however stressed that the security forces “responded very effectively to quickly put an end to the attack at the Bardo, certainly preventing dozens more deaths if the terrorists had been able to set off their suicide belts”, he was quoted as saying on the Paris Match website.
Deputy speaker Abdelfattah Mourou said on Friday that guards supposed to be protecting the museum and the nearby parliament were having coffee at the time of the assault. The president’s comments came as Tunisian authorities said there were developments in the investigation.