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Seven jailed for life for Tunisia terrorist attacks

Seven militants have been sentenced to life in prison in Tunisia over attacks against foreign holidaymakers at a museum and a beach resort in 2015.

Sixty people, mostly tourists, died in the two attacks and many were wounded.

Some of the many defendants received lesser sentences and 27 were acquitted. Prosecutors plan to appeal.

The first attack, at the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March 2015, killed 22.

Three months later, 38 tourists, most of them British, were shot dead at the beach resort of Port El Kantaoui, near Sousse.

The so-called Islamic State group said it had carried out the attacks.

The man believed to have planned both, Chamseddine al-Sandi, remains at large.

Unconfirmed reports suggested he may have died in a US air strike in February 2016 in Libya, the BBC reported.

There were two separate trials.

In the Sousse trial, four militants were given life sentences, while five others were sentenced to between six months and 16 years.

Three defendants received life terms and a number of others were jailed for shorter periods in the Bardo trial. Ten were acquitted.

Gunman Seifeddine Rezgui, opened fire on tourists staying in the popular resort of Port El Kantaoui, just north of Sousse on June 26 before being shot by security forces.

Rezgui was dropped off down a side road, a short distance from the beach, and walked the rest of the way with a Kalashnikov rifle hidden in a parasol. When he arrived at the five-star Hotel Rui Imperial Marhaba, he opened fire indiscriminately at tourists on sun loungers on the beach.

Thirty of the 38 who lost their lives in the beach attack were British.

The victims of the Bardo museum attack came from around the world, with many on a cruise ship shore excursion.

Three Japanese tourists died, alongside four Italians, three French, two Colombians, two Spaniards, and one each from Russia and the UK. Two Tunisian citizens, including one police officer, died. More than 50 people were wounded.

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