Foreign Tourists Fly Out after Tunisia Killings
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Foreign tourists are flying out of Tunisia after the deaths of 38 tourists in an attack on a beach resort in the coastal town of Sousse.
Saturday's exodus came despite the Tunisian government's rejection of claims that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group carried out Friday's attack, saying the suspect had never travelled abroad and was not previously known to police.
The government of the North African country has also launched a crackdown on what it calls extremism.
An armed man disguised as a tourist opened fire on a beach outside two hotels with a weapon he had hidden in an umbrella on Friday.
The attacker was shot by police, taking the death toll including the assailant to 39, with dozens of others injured.
Witnesses said the assailant took his time, targeting people at point-blank range, first on the beach and then around the swimming pool, reloading his weapon several times and tossing an explosive.
Habib Essid, the Tunisian prime minister, said most of the dead were British.
Tunisian, German, Belgian and Irish citizens were also killed.
Essid announced plans to close down 80 mosques that remain outside state control for inciting violence.
"It is not acceptable to have in Tunisia any mosques operating outside the rule of law," he said.
Tunisia's government had already stepped up security before the hotel attack, Al Jazeera reported.
Friday's attack was the worst in Tunisia's modern history and the second major massacre this year following the assault on the Bardo national museum in Tunis when armed men killed 22 mostly foreign visitors.
