Tunisia is hunting a third suspect following the massacre of tourists at its national museum, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said on Sunday, after admitting to security failures at the Bardo.
“Definitely there were three,” Essebsi told France’s iTele television channel and Europe 1 radio.
“Two were killed, but there is one who is now on the run,” he said. “In any case, he will not get very far.”
Wednesday’s attack on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis killed 20 foreign tourists and a police officer, and was the first assault claimed by the Islamic State group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, in the North African nation.
It came as Tunisia — the birthplace of the Arab Spring that held its first free elections last year — struggles with rising Islamic extremism.
On Saturday, authorities released CCTV footage showing two black-clad gunmen with automatic weapons walking unimpeded though a large lobby in the museum, just after noon.
The grainy footage then shows the gunmen passing an unidentified male. They point an automatic weapon at him briefly before letting him leave as they make their way up a staircase.
After rampaging through the museum for several hours, the two gunmen were killed in an assault by security forces.
Tunisian Secretary of State for Security Rafik Chelly on Sunday said on the Web site of French weekly Paris Match that the third person in the video was “one of the two Vespa drivers that brought the killers,” and that he wanted to leave because of the police response.
“The drivers and other logistics people from the cell, a total of 15 people, are already behind bars,” Chelly added.
The Tunisian Ministry of the Interior had earlier said more than 10 people were arrested.
The interior ministry on Saturday said it had issued an arrest warrant for Maher Ben Moudli Kaidi, a Tunisian suspect described as a “dangerous terrorist element.”
Chelly said that Kaidi coordinated the attack.
Officials have admitted that guards tasked with protecting the museum and the nearby parliament were having coffee at the time of the assault.
Essebsi said that more could have been done to prevent the attack, which raised fears for the lucrative tourism sector that represents 8 percent of Tunisia’s GDP.
Museum curator Moncef Ben Moussa on Sunday said the Bardo would reopen today and that all of its the artifacts were “intact.”
“The police and intelligence were not systematic enough to ensure the safety of the museum,” Essebsi said.
However, he also insisted his security forces were quick to respond after the attack and to prevent further deaths.
“We were there 10 minutes later,” he said.
Essebsi also vowed that an anti-terrorism law “will be voted rapidly,” adding: “Libya is one of our problems.”
Officials said the Bardo gunmen had trained in neighboring Libya, where the Islamic State group has militant camps and is battling local militia for control of the nation’s oil wealth.
Both Tunisia and Libya have seen an upsurge in Islamic extremism since separate uprisings that toppled veteran strongmen in 2011.
However, Tunisia has taken pride in forming a democratic government — in marked contrast to Libya or Egypt, which has also been shaken by turmoil since its 2011 revolt.
The Islamic State group has threatened more attacks in Tunisia.
The dead tourists included four Italians, three Japanese, three French, two Spaniards, a Colombian, an Australian-Colombian, a Briton, a Belgian, three Poles and a Russian.
On Sunday, Essebsi laid a wreath at the museum for the victims, who included a Tunisian police officer.
The attack in the heart of Tunis was unprecedented, but dozens of police and military personnel have been killed in attacks blamed on Islamic militants, who are battling the army in the Mount Chaambi region near the Algerian border.
A Tunisian soldier was killed and two others injured when their vehicle hit a landmine “planted by terrorist elements” in a mountainous region near the Algerian border, the Tunisian Ministry of Defense said.
Tunisian newspapers demanded that the authorities do more to combat extremism.
“What’s essential now is to really take action,” French-language daily Le Quotidien wrote, including more controls at mosques “under the influence of uncontrollable religious fanatics.”
Le Temps called for “urgent draconian measures” and withdrawing Tunisian citizenship from “terrorists who pledge allegiance to the enemy.”
Authorities say as many as 3,000 Tunisians have gone to Iraq, Syria and Libya to join the Islamic State group and other jihadist groups, raising fears of returning battle-hardened militants plotting attacks.
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