July 6, 2015 Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi declared on June 26 that the North African country was “in a war against terrorism”. He made this remark to reporters in Sousse, as the death toll from the tourist resort shooting attack rose to 37 people.
He said “We have repeatedly said that Tunisia is in a war against terrorism. This war does not only concern the police or the army that paid the higher price and was often targeted, today we are reminded that the Tunisian people as a whole are involved,”
It is recalled that a gunman disguised as a tourist opened fire at the Imperial Marhaba hotel with a weapon he had hidden in an umbrella. The assailant walked through the hotel grounds, opening fire at the pool and beach, reloading his weapon several times and tossing an explosive, according to eye witnesses.
He took the lives of 37 people, including British, German and Belgian tourists as they lounged at the beach and pool in the popular resort town, before he was also shot and killed by police, according to witnesses and security officials.
A security source said another bomb was found on his body, which lay with a Kalashnikov assault rifle where he was shot.
A German tourist recounts the horrible experience:
“We are German and we were at the beach when the terrorist arrived and fired shots at us. We went to our left and we hid in the underpass with two people who work at the hotel. We were in a large room without light, we stayed there for two hours. Now we are dressed just like as we were at the beach,”
“It is really hard because we really had a nice holiday and now we only want to go back to Germany. It’s a pity, it was a beautiful day, but I don’t think that we will come back again. It’s a pity,”
It was not known whether the Tunisian attacker was inspired by Isis; Rafik Chelli, a senior interior ministry official, has said the gunman killed was a student who was unknown to authorities and not on any watch list of potential jihadists.
Local radio gave the info that police captured a second gunman, but officials did not immediately confirm the arrest or the man’s part in the attack.