Tunisia holds eight over Sousse attack on tourists

Meanwhile, the bodies of eight of the 26 Britons killed in last week’s attack were set to be flown home Wednesday, a British embassy source said.

Brize Norton: RAF transport carrying bodies of eight victims.

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WPA Pool/Getty Images A military honor guard handles the coffin of John Stollery, one of the victims of last Friday’s Tunisia terrorist attack, as it is taken from the RAF C-17 aircraft in England.

Seven Tunisians have been arrested, court spokesman Sofiene Selliti said.

“There is still a lot of work to be done to identify all the circumstances of this appalling attack and the support that the gunman received”, British Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament on Wednesday.

The investigation continues, Selliti said. But Britain suffered the heaviest loss.

The first RAF repatriation flights left Britain early yesterday morning and will carry the bodies back to the UK, with the process expected to take a number of days.

“The formal identification process has now been completed in Tunisia, there were formalities that were undertaken”, he said.

“One victim now remains who we believe is British but police require further time to confirm the identity”.

The 25 British tourists who were wounded have already been flown home, while 4000 terrified holidaymakers were repatriated at the weekend. Libya’s Islamic State section, also known as Daesh, claimed responsibility for the attack and referred to Rezgui as Abu Yahya Kayrawani. CNN couldn’t independently verify the legitimacy of the audio claim.

Police shot Al Rezgui dead near the beach Friday, and authorities have said he carried out the attack alone.

Stephen and Cheryl Mellor were doing a crossword puzzle together on their sun loungers when the attacker struck.

“The Foreign and Commonwealth Office can confirm that nine British nationals will be repatriated from Tunisia today”, a spokeswoman said.

In its wake, Tunisian authorities vowed new heightened security measures, including 1,000 armed officers to reinforce tourism police – who will be armed for the first time – at hotels, beaches and other attractions. “I need, we need, to commit ourselves to prayer and fasting”.

The Interior Ministry said it was hunting for what it described as a “dangerous terrorist” allegedly involved in the Sousse attack and a previous assault on the national museum in the capital, Tunis.

“The security services have been able to… uncover and destroy the network that was behind this operation”, Jendoubi told a press conference, without specifying whether more arrests would be made.

Many tourists chose to cut short their vacation after the bloody attack at the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba.

Officials believe both the Sousse and Bardo museum gunmen were trained in Libya, which has been mostly lawless since Nato-led forces overthrew long-serving ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

According to the United Kingdom Independent, one witness said young people were running up to the police saying, “We’re not afraid of dying; give [the gun] to us”.