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Tunisia arrests 12 suspected in Sousse beach attack

In total 28 tourists were killed on Friday when gunman Seifeddine Rezgui attacked the Sousse beach resort.

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Thirty of the victims of the attack on the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel, near Sousse, last Friday are thought to have been British.

Among the dead are 19-year-old Joel Richards from Wednesbury, his uncle, Adrian Evans from Bilston, and grandfather Patrick “Charles” Evans, 78, also from Wednesbury.

The repatriation of all the dead is likely to take several days, with two further flights planned for Friday and Saturday.

Connecticut scans will be conducted in order to establish the precise cause of death.

The first inquests into the deaths of the Britons will open at West London Coroner’s Court today.

Earlier Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that he is looking at creating a ministerial committee to co-ordinate work across the government “to provide all the support that the victims of this appalling attack deserve and also to make sure that, as a nation, we mark and commemorate this event appropriately”.

Transport for London and national rail services have been asked to make announcements to remind staff and passengers.

The father of the gunman, who is believed to have links with the Islamic State (Isis), said he is ashamed and shocked at his son’s bloody acts.

In recent interviews with VOA, Libyan officials and militia leaders in Tripoli say Tunisians form the largest contingent of foreign fighters with jihadist groups in Libya.

The eight – seven men and a woman – are “directly” connected to the June 26 attack in the coastal resort city of Sousse, said Kamal Jendoubi, the minister of constitutional bodies and civil society.

Tunisian authorities say the Sousse and Bardo museum attackers all received military training late previous year in a jihadist camp over the border in lawless southern Libya.

In March, gunmen killed 21 tourists and a policeman in an attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis.

Michael Fallon told MPs they should “be in absolutely no doubt the people who perpetrated the murders of our constituents are going to be tracked down, whether they’re in Libya, Syria or anywhere else”. Homegrown groups like Ansar al-Sharia and imported groups like IS have taken advantage of the security vacuum that followed the fall of strongman Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 and Libya’s more recent descent into civil war.

Selliti said that “very important information was found on the terrorist’s phone”, which was recovered from the sea near the beach where the attack was carried out.

Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi said an investigation was under way into security failures and there would be armed tourist police on beaches.

One declared: “People of Tawhid [accepting one God], as has been said there are Christians coming to your home under the guise of tourism and there are many Jews in our country and there is the apostate army – and all whom we mention are legitimate targets for your men”.

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He said: “I would like to use this opportunity to appeal to anyone who was in Sousse and witnessed the attack to contact us on 0800 789 321 to help with the investigation, if they haven’t done so already”.

Wimbledon will fall silent to remember victims of the Tunisia terror attack