Ringleader of Tunisia beach massacre ‘killed’ in US raid on Isil training camp
Terrorist behind attack that killed 30 Britons believed dead after mission from RAF Suffolk base
ONE of the masterminds of last summer’s massacre of British tourists in Tunisia is believed to have been killed in a US bombing raid on an Isil camp in Libya yesterday.
American warplanes targeted Noureddine Chouchane, a Tunisian terrorist who helped organise the attack that killed 30 Britons at a beach hotel in June.
US F-15 Strike Eagle jets carried out the raid from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.
Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, authorised the use of a British base on Thursday, while travelling back from the Falklands via Ascension Island.
Mr Fallon said: “I welcome this strike that has taken out a Daesh training camp being used to train terrorists to carry out attacks. I was satisfied that its destruction makes us all safer, and I personally authorised the US use of our bases.”
US intelligence was last night still trying to determine whether Chouchane was killed, but more than 30 other Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters died in the bombing, according to the New York Times.
One US official said it was “likely” Chouchane was among the dead.
The raid is a symbol of growing Western alarm at how Isil has expanded its control over swathes of Libya even as it faces setbacks in Iraq and Syria.
Both Britain and the US have stepped up reconnaissance and special forces operations in Libya and President Barack Obama said this week that America would target Isil “wherever it appears”.
Chouchane, 36, allegedly helped plan the mass shooting at a beachfront hotel in the Tunisian resort of Sousse. A gunman disguised as a tourist opened fire on holidaymakers and killed 38 people, of whom 30 were British.
Chouchane was also reportedly involved in the attack on a Tunisian mu- seum three months earlier. The shooting killed 22 people, most of whom were foreigners.
A warrant was issued for Chouchane’s arrest but he is believed to have slipped over the border to Libya.
The US airstrikes, launched at dawn yesterday, struck a farmhouse outside of the Libyan coastal city of Sabratha, around 40 miles west of Tripoli.
The house was a well-known training ground for Isil fighters of several nationalities.
“The US conducted an air strike early this morning against an Isil training camp near Sabratha, Libya, that likely killed Isil operative Noureddine Chouchane,” a US official told AFP.
Hussein al-Dawadi, a local mayor, said 41 people were killed in the bombing and “the vast majority of those killed were Tunisians who were probably members of Isil”.
Tunisia has been one of the main sources of foreign fighters for Isil. Around 7,000 Tunisians have joined the group in Iraq and Syria, making it the largest foreign nationality in the socalled caliphate, according to figures from the US Congress.
Sabratha is just 60 miles from the border with Tunisia and has emerged as a stronghold for Isil along with Sirte, the home town of deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Mr Obama was asked this week if Western militaries should intervene again in Libya, five years after Nato airpower helped Libyan rebels overthrow the Gaddafi regime.
“With respect to Libya, I have been clear from the outset that we will go after Isil wherever it appears, the same way that we went after al-Qaeda wherever they appeared,” Mr Obama said. “We will continue to take actions where we’ve got a clear operation and a clear target in mind.”