Italian police arrest suspect in Tunisia museum attack

Italian police have arrested a Moroccan man on a Tunisian warrant accusing him of helping organize and execute the March 18 attack on Tunisia's Bardo Museum that left 22 people dead, authorities said Wednesday.

Touil Abdelmajid was arrested Tuesday evening at the home of his mother in Gaggiano, near Milan, anti-terrorism investigator Bruno Megale told a news conference.

The accusations listed in the Tunisian arrest warrant include premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit attacks against the internal security of the state, belonging to a terrorist group and recruiting and training others to commit terrorist attacks, Megale said.

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for attacking the Bardo, Tunisia's leading historical museum, which has a trove of Roman mosaics. The arrest in Italy is the latest in a long string of arrests made by Western European states in connection with suspected terrorism plots.

Last month Spanish police arrested at least 10 people believed to have ISIL ties. After the January shooting attack on the Parisian satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and an alleged plot to kill Belgian police officers, France, Germany and Belgium made a wave of arrests of people suspected of planning assaults.

The Bardo attackers opened fire on tourists exiting buses and then entered the museum, apparently unimpeded, and fired on more tourists inside. In addition to the 22 victims, two gunmen were killed in a shootout with police. Four Italians were among the dead.

A number of people have been arrested in connection with the attack, but the Tunisian Interior Ministry has said its mastermind is still at large.

Megale said Abdelmajid had been unknown to Italian authorities except for an expulsion order issued by Sicilian authorities in February.

It was not immediately clear whether Abdelmajid would be sent to Tunisia for questioning.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi congratulated the police for the arrest, saying he was “proud of your professionalism.”

Al Jazeera and wire services