Tunisia: At Least 37 Dead in Terrorist Attack at Seaside Resort

At least 37 people are dead in a terrorist attack at a resort in Tunisia.

But in order to show how “tolerant” they are, politicians and the media will take this opportunity to praise and defend Islam.

TUNIS (New York Times) — At least one gunman disguised as a vacationer attacked a placid seaside resort in Tunisia on Friday, killing at least 37 people at a beachfront hotel — many of them foreign tourists — before he was shot to death by security forces.

It was the second major terrorist attack in a little more than three months targeting the Tunisian tourist industry. It sent shockwaves through the country, which was still recovering from the first assault, a massacre at a museum in the heart of the capital in March. President Beji Caid Essebsi rushed to the resort and promised tough new security procedures.

The audacity of the assailant, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, suggested a sharp escalation from the relatively low-level political violence that has bedeviled Tunisia since its Arab Spring revolt four years ago.

Government officials and witnesses offered conflicting accounts of the assault, with some saying that two gunmen, who had possibly come ashore in a rubber dinghy, had ambushed tourists at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse, which is popular with German vacationers.

Others said that there was a single gunman but that the police were searching for possible accomplices. There were unconfirmed reports that the violence had extended to a second hotel.

At least 20 people were wounded in the attack, including five British tourists and five Tunisians, who were being treated at a city hospital, Tunisian news media reported.

The nationalities of the other victims were not immediately clear, but witnesses said many appeared to have been foreigners, including some children. The BBC reported that “Tunisians, Britons, Germans, Belgians and at least one Irish citizen were among the dead.”

The victims were gunned down on the beach, at the hotel pool and in the lobby. Some said it took the police and security officers at least 30 minutes to respond after the shooting started just before noon. (Continue Reading.)

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