Cameron: UK must prepare for ‘many’ dead in Tunisia
Most of the 38 dead in beach terrorist assault said to be Britons; fatalities also include Irish, German and Belgian tourists
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday warned the country to prepare for the fact that “many” of those killed in the attack on a Tunisian beach resort were British.
Tunisian authorities have so far identified eight Britons among the 38 killed on Friday, making it the biggest loss of British life from a terrorist incident since the July 7 bombings in London in 2005, when 52 people were killed. Officials in Tunisia indicated that most of the dead were Britons.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, and posted a picture of the man who it said carried out the killings, Seifeddine Yacoubi.
“I’m afraid that the British public need to be prepared for the fact that many of those killed were British,” Cameron said in a televised address from his Downing Street residence.
He added: “These were innocent holidaymakers, relaxing and enjoying time with their friends and families.
“Like the victims in France and Kuwait yesterday, they did not pose a threat to anybody. These terrorists murdered them because the terrorists oppose people and countries who stand for peace, tolerance and democracy wherever they are in the world. But these terrorists will not succeed,” he added.
In comments immediately after the Tunisia shootings on Friday, Cameron lamented the “poisonous radical narrative that is turning so many young minds,” and said, “We have to combat it with everything we have.”
He insisted that this terrorism was “not in the name of Islam. Islam is a religion of peace.” The killers, rather, “do it in the name of a twisted, perverted ideology,” he said.
The government of Ireland has confirmed that an Irish nurse was killed in the terrorist attack on tourists in Tunisia.
Relatives and family friends said Lorna Carty was fatally shot as she sunbathed. She and her husband, Declan, had received the holiday as a present to help Declan Carty relax following his recent heart surgery. Family friends speaking to the couple’s two children said Lorna Carty went ahead of her husband to the beach, where she suffered fatal gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead in hospital.
One Belgian and one German have also been identified among the 38 people killed by an Islamist gunman at a Tunisian beach resort, the health ministry said Saturday.
The ministry said more time was needed to identify the other victims because most of them were in beachwear at the time of the attack and were not carrying identification.