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Security tight ... Armed police continue to patrol Marhaba beach in Sousse, where 38 people were killed in the terror attack. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Source: Getty Images
EIGHT people are in custody on suspicion of direct links to a deadly attack on a Tunisian beach resort, while police have released four others detained earlier in the investigation, a government minister said.
Meanwhile, the British Foreign Office raised the death toll of British tourists killed in the attack from 27 to 30. Other European tourists were among the 38 dead.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, in which Tunisian student Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire on a beach in the resort of Sousse. The attacker was later killed by police.
Investigation ongoing ... Kamel Jendoubi, Minister to the Prime Minister in charge of Relations with Constitutional Bodies and the Civil Society, right. Picture: AP/Darko Vojinovic Source: AP
Government minister Kamel Jendoubi told reporters in Tunis that 12 people in total were detained since the attack, but four have been released.
The other eight — seven men and one woman — remain in custody and are suspected of direct links to the attack, he said.
“The whole of the network behind the operation has been uncovered,†he said, without specifying whether more arrests would be made.
He said the investigation “has allowed us to discover the network behind the operation in Sousse.â€
Victims return home ... The coffin of Elaine Thwaites, one of the victims of the terrorist attack, is taken from the RAF C-17 aircraft at RAF Brize Norton. Picture: Joe Giddens-WPA Pool/Getty Source: Getty Images
He also urged greater international terrorism cooperation in a “war ... between democratic Tunisia and an international jihadi movement.â€
More Tunisians — about 3,000 — are believed to have gone to Syria and Iraq to join radical jihadis including the Islamic State group than fighters from any other country.
A top security official told the AP this week that the student had trained in a jihadi camp in Libya at the same time as the two men who attacked a leading Tunisian museum in March. That enforced the notion of a link between the two assaults and raised fears of more attacks on this North African nation’s budding democracy.
The attack was Tunisia’s deadliest ever, and threatened to be a devastating blow to the country’s tourism sector.