Tunisia slams Britain's evacuation of tourists

Tunisia criticised Britain's decision to urge tourists to leave the country after last month's terrorist attack, saying the damaging of the tourism industry was "what the terrorists want." British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond defended the move on Friday, but said his government hoped to downgrade its warning soon if security improved in Tunisia. "We have a lot of people on the ground working with the Tunisians," Hammond said on the sidelines of talks in Vienna.

"We now have a much better picture of the emerging scale of the threat, as well as a much better understanding of the mitigations that the Tunisians have put in place," he told reporters.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said he planned to speak to his British counterpart, David Cameron, to explain Tunisia's efforts to protect British citizens since the 26 June shootings that killed 38 people, including 30 British citizens, in the resort city of Sousse. "The British decision will have repercussions for other countries," which could also advise tourists not to visit Tunisia, Essid told parliament late Thursday. "Tunisia will co-operate in evacuating Britons and will protect whoever wants to stay on," he said.

Nabil Ammar, the Tunisian ambassador to London, told the BBC that the evacuation was "what the terrorists want." "By damaging tourism, by having foreigners leaving the country, they damage the whole sector and put so many people out of work and on the streets," Ammar said. "One of the sources of terrorism is lack of hope," he said. On Friday, Essid told parliament that security forces had carried out 8,000 raids since a terrorist attack that killed 21 people at the national museum in March. Authorities had also barred about 15,000 young Tunisians from leaving the country to fight in regional hotspots, he said, apparently referring to neighbouring Libya and Syria. In one of the latest operations, Tunisian police killed five "terrorists" in clashes with suspected insurgents during raids on Friday in the southern city of Gafsa, Tunisian newspaper al-Chorouk reported.

The British Foreign Ministry said late on Thursday that all tourists should leave Tunisia as soon as possible because it believed "a further terrorist attack is highly likely."    (dpa)

Qantara.de on the Sousse attack:

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