German Interior Minister Otto Schily said on Monday both Germany and Tunisia were "100 percent sure" the truck explosion which killed 11 German tourists in a Tunisian resort earlier this month was a "terrorist" attack.
The two countries were "100 percent sure that it was a terrorist crime," Schily told reporters after meeting Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Eleven Germans, five Tunisians and a Frenchman were killed when a tanker truck containing cooking gas exploded near the El Ghriba synagogue, the oldest in North Africa on the Tunisian resort island of Djerba. The truck driver was among the dead.
According to Reuters, German officials believe the attack was deliberate and briefly detained a man last Tuesday in connection with the blast. German ministers have said there was evidence to link the blast to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
Tunisian authorities, who at first said they believed the explosion was an accident, have since said they were "investigating in all directions".
Last week, President Ben Ali extended his condolences to the families of the victims of the blast in Djerba and stressed that Tunisia would “remain as always a land of tolerance, brotherhood and harmony.”
"As I extend my most sincere condolences and my deepest expressions of sympathy to the families of victims, Tunisia, German and French, after the tragic explosion which occurred recently in Djerba, I would like to emphasize that Tunisia will remain as it was always, for thousands of years, a land of tolerance, brotherhood and harmony, where the three revealed religions co-exist in peace and security,” declared Ben Ali. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
