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Tunisia Beach Attack Victims Let Down by “Cowardly” Security Forces – UK Inquiry | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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ATTENTION EDITORS – VISUAL COVERAGE OF SCENES OF DEATH AND INJURY
The body of a tourist shot dead by a gunman lies near a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia June 26, 2015. At least 27 people, including foreign tourists, were killed when at least one gunman opened fire on the Tunisian beachside hotel in the popular resort of Sousse on Friday, an interior ministry spokesman said. Police were still clearing the area around the Imperial Marhaba hotel and the body of one gunman lay at the scene with a Kalashnikov assault rifle after he was shot in an exchange of gunfire, a security source at the scene said. REUTERS/Amine Ben Aziza


Tunisia Beach Attack Victims Let Down by “Cowardly” Security Forces – UK Inquiry

by | Mar 1, 2017 | Middle East |

Tunisia Beach Attack Victims Let Down by “Cowardly” Security Forces – UK Inquiry

Tunisia, London- “Cowardly” Tunisian security forces let down the victims of a shooting at a beach hotel, making “deliberate and unjustifiable” delays in their journey to the scene, a UK inquiry found on Tuesday.

A gunman killed 30 Britons and eight others on a Tunisian resort in June 2015, having walked nearly two miles on his killing spree before being shot dead by security forces.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

Summing up after a six-week inquest, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith severely criticized the security forces, saying that their response had been “at best shambolic and at worst cowardly.”

An inquest by Tunisian authorities was also critical of local security forces’ response.

Loraine-Smith did however praise the “conspicuous personal courage” showed by some staff and guests and said neither the tour operator nor the hotel had been neglectful in the unlawful killings.

The British victims had booked their trips through Thomson Holidays, which is owned by TUI Group.

Families of those killed have been critical of TUI for not highlighting British government warnings around travel to Tunisia in their advertising for holidays and not making it easier to cancel trips following a previous attack in Tunis, according to Reuters.

A lawyer for the victims’ families said they would begin civil proceedings against TUI for damages.

“It is now crucial that the whole travel industry learns from what happened in Sousse to reduce the risk of similar catastrophic incidents in future,” a statement from Clive Garner at Irwin Mitchell, which represents 22 of the families, said.

The resort attack took place in Sousse, 140 km (87 miles) south of Tunis, three months after an attack on a museum in Tunis, with foreign tourists taken hostage.

Loraine-Smith said that TUI did not update their website following the Tunis attack, and the firm’s phone operators did not direct concerned customers to the government’s travel advice for Tunisia in the wake of the museum shooting.

TUI said in a statement that “steps to raise awareness” of the government’s travel advice had subsequently been taken.