Foreign Tourists Fly Out After Tunisia Killings

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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 of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group carried out Friday’s attack, saying the suspect had never traveled abroad and was not previously known to police. Aljazeera was there:

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.