Tunisia declares state of emergency
Tunis, 4 Jul - (ANA) - Tunisia has declared a state of emergency, just over a week after 38 tourists, mainly Britons, died in an attack in the resort city of Sousse. The state of emergency gives security forces more powers and limits the right of public assembly. Authorities had already tightened security in the wake of the attack on 26 June, deploying more than 1,400 armed officers at hotels and beaches. Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi is due to address the nation later. Security forces were criticised for not responding more quickly to the attack in Sousse, when a gunman opened fire on tourists on a beach and in a hotel before being shot dead by police. Those killed included 30 Britons. The gunman has been identified as student Seifeddine Rezgui, who authorities say had trained in Libya. Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Rezgui, and the government says it has uncovered the network behind the Sousse attack. Authorities have also pledged to close some 80 mosques that were operating outside government control and accused of spreading extremism. Analysts say Tunisia has been put at risk by the chaotic situation in neighbouring Libya, and by the threat posed by Tunisians who have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq returning home. The last time Tunisia declared a state of emergency was in 2011, in the uprising which overthrew President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. It was lifted in March 2014. Officials are expected to pass a counter-terrorism bill that has been in parliament since early 2014 in the coming weeks. The Sousse attack represented the second blow in three months to Tunisia's tourism industry, an important sector for the country. In March, two gunmen killed 22 people at the renowned Bardo museum in Tunisia's capital, Tunis. (ANA)

FA/ANA/4 July 2015----------