Tunisia cannot face jihadists alone, president says

Tunisia cannot stand up to the jihadist threat alone, President Beji Caid Essebsi said Friday after a gunman killed 28 people at a tourist resort, calling for a unified global strategy, AFP reports.

"We note that Tunisia faces an international movement. It cannot respond alone to this. On the same day at the same time France has been the target of such an operation, and Kuwait too," Essebsi told AFP.

"This proves the need for a global strategy, and that all democratic countries must now join forces."

"This is worse than terrible," he said of the attack at a beach resort in Sousse, about 140 kilometres (87 miles) south of Tunis, packed with holidaymakers.

"We thought we were protected from that."

"I hope this is the last time, because we are determined to take the most painful measures to deal with an even more painful scourge."

Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, has seen a surge in radical Islam since veteran president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in the 2011 revolution.

In October 2013, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a botched attack on a beach in Sousse while security forces foiled another planned attack nearby.

Friday's shooting was the worst in modern-day Tunisia and came after a March attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman.