Tunisia policeman shot dead in beach massacre resort

August 20, 2015 | 10:37

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A Tunisian policeman was shot dead on Wednesday by two assailants on a motorbike in the coastal resort of Sousse where a militant gunman killed 38 tourists in June, a senior security official said.

A Tunisian security member stands next to a swimming pool at the resort town of Sousse, a popular tourist destination 140km south of the Tunisian capital, following a shooting attack. (AFP PHOTO/FETHI BELAID)

TUNIS: A Tunisian policeman was shot dead on Wednesday (Aug 19) by two assailants on a motorbike in the coastal resort of Sousse where a militant gunman killed 38 tourists in June, a senior security official said.

"Unknown assailants fired on three policemen on a road. One of them was hit and died in hospital," Rafik Chelly, secretary of state for national security, told AFP. "An investigation is under way. We can't say any more," said Chelly, without being able to clarify if the attack was the work of militants.

An interior ministry spokesman said the two other policemen were unharmed, contrary to an earlier report from Wataniya-1 television. The incident took place seven kilometres from Sousse, he said, adding police were hunting the assailants who fled.

The targeted policemen were waiting by the side of the road for a ride to a town in central Tunisia, according to the television.

The attack came less than two months after a militant gunman killed 30 Britons and eight other foreign tourists on a beach in Sousse, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Tunisia has been under a state of emergency in the wake of the Jun 26 massacre which followed an attack by gunmen on the Bardo museum in Tunis that killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman. IS also claimed responsibility for the Mar 18 museum attack, and extra troops have been posted at tourist sites since the beach killings.

Tunisia has since its 2011 revolution faced an upsurge in militant violence that has cost the lives of dozens of soldiers and police, with most attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda's North African branch.

AFP

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