Tunisia Arrests 7 Suspects After Deadly Weekend Attack

In this frame grab from a video, Tunisian police officers investigate after Tunisian forces shot dead three suspected Islamic militants who rammed their vehicle into security officers and attacked them with knives, killing one and injuring another in the coastal resort town of Sousse, eastern Tunisia, Sunday Sept.6, 2020. Speaking at the site of the attack, Tunisian prime minister Hicham Mechichi announced the arrest of a fourth suspect who had been aboard the vehicle that rammed the National Guard officers. (AP Photo/Mehdi El Arem)

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisian authorities say that they have arrested seven people suspected of involvement in a deadly weekend attack that left one security officer dead and another wounded.

The attack occurred on Sunday in the Tunisian resort town of Sousse when the perpetrators rammed their vehicle into security officers and attacked them with knives.

National guard spokesman Housameddine Jbabli said Monday on Radio Shems that seven suspects are being held by anti-terrorism authorities.

The Islamic State group’s Amaq agency carried a brief claim of responsibility on Monday for the attack. It was unclear whether or not the claim was opportunistic. However, on Sunday, the spokesman for Tunisia’s judicial section of the counter-terrorism fight said the attackers were dressed in IS colors bearing slogans glorifying the terror organization.

On Sunday, Tunisian forces fatally shot three alleged attackers. Among the seven detained is the wife of one of the dead attackers and the two brothers of another. Jbabli said that a preliminary investigation showed that the attackers had developed online links with foreign networks to find out how to make explosives.

Sousse was the site of Tunisia’s deadliest extremist attack in 2015, when a massacre killed 38 people, most of them British tourists. That dealt a heavy blow to Tunisia’s tourism sector, a pillar of the North African nation’s economy.