Police Seek Third Gunman in Deadly Attack at Tunisian National Museum
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Version 0 of 1. TUNIS — Tunisian security forces are looking for a third man suspected in Wednesday’s attack at the National Bardo Museum, in which 20 foreign tourists, a Tunisian police officer and two gunmen were killed. President Beji Caid Essebsi said a third man had been identified from the museum’s surveillance cameras. “For sure there were three, because they have been identified and filmed on surveillance cameras,” he said in a televised interview with several French news media organizations. “There is one who is on the run somewhere. But in any case, he won’t get far.” Tunisians have been shaken by the attack, a massacre in the heart of the capital right next to the Parliament. The Islamic State group and a smaller extremist movement, Okba Ibn Nafaa, have claimed responsibility for the rampage. The Interior Ministry released footage of two gunmen walking through the museum’s lobby and along a corridor during the attack. At one point they encounter a man descending a flight of stairs, with whom they appear to exchange a brief greeting before he hurriedly departs. That man was among about 20 people arrested as suspected accomplices. The ministry also released photographs of the gunmen killed by security forces, identified as Yassine Abidi, 26, and Hatem Khachnaoui, who was from Kasserine, in western Tunisia. Officials said police were still searching for Maher Ben Moudli Kaidi, who they believe coordinated the attack. Residents in the working-class area of northern Tunis where Mr. Abidi lived said Mr. Kaidi also lived nearby. Mr. Abidi’s father identified his son’s body on Sunday at the central morgue and brought it home to Ibn Khaldoun for burial. A crowd of relatives and neighbors — women in colored veils, men in leather jackets or hooded sweatshirts — were gathered under a white tent before the family’s modest two-story house, embracing and offering condolences, when a pickup bearing the coffin arrived. Women began wailing as the men carried the plain wooden coffin into the house. The crowd of neighbors circled the home in solidarity for several hours, as women emerged weeping, tearing at their hair and collapsing. Yet Mr. Abidi’s actions have divided the neighborhood. Attending a funeral for a neighbor or relative in a Muslim society like Tunisia is an obligation, yet some said they would not do so because they were revolted by what he had done. The family is well known and well liked here. Mr. Abidi used to help his father in his fruit shop, and sit with his uncle at a local cafe after work. He had completed two years in college studying French but stopped attending to take a job at a travel agency alongside his sister, said his cousin Dalel Abidi. She and many others insisted that Mr. Abidi was not a violent type. “I am shocked, I am shocked,” Ms. Abidi said. “When we sacrificed a sheep at the festival of Eid he could not face the sight of blood. I cannot believe it.” His uncle, Muhamed Abidi, 63, offered his regrets for the deaths of foreign tourists before speaking about his nephew. “He is not a terrorist so much as a victim of terrorism,” he said. “We still do not know what happened,” he said. His nephew became more religiously observant three years ago and seemed to be getting his life together, starting a new job. “He was not a radical. He worked and he tried to make something of his life,” the uncle said. “The main question is who is pushing our young men to do this,” he added. “We are still perplexed, very sad, and very confused.” Friends and neighbors said the young man was an unlikely terrorist. Ana Saydani, 30, a call operator, used to leave her daughter with Mr. Abidi’s mother while she was at work. “The last time I saw Yassine was Friday before the attack,” she said. “I was just chit-chatting with him. He was very kind.” One man who gave his name as Ayari described Mr. Abidi as quiet and calm. “He would sit after work and read a foreign-language book. He never got into trouble.” The man declined to give his full name because he said he did not want to show disrespect to the family by talking about them to reporters. “We are all under shock and do not even want to accept this.” He and other neighbors said Mr. Abidi and Mr. Kaidi had been part of a small group of friends who had rented a house in an adjoining neighborhood and set up their own private mosque there. “These groups target the weak ones, and his family is poor,” one neighbor said. “They know how to pick the right ones and they pushed him to it.” Mr. Abidi had disappeared for a month from December to January and his family did not know where he was, one neighbor said. The Tunisian authorities have said that the two gunmen went to Libya for jihadi training. |