Tunisia fears new 'terrorist attacks': PM

Tunis 

Tunisia fears more potentially destabilising "terrorist attacks," like the one that killed 38 foreign tourists last month, which is why it has imposed a state of emergency, the premier said Wednesday.

Eight days after the June 26 shootings at the Mediterranean resort of Port El Kantaoui, President Beji Caid Essebsi decreed on Saturday a state of emergency for 30 days.

The rampage by a Tunisian student killed 30 Britons, three Irish nationals, two Germans, one Belgian, one Portuguese and a Russian, and was claimed by the Islamic State group. 

"We are engaged in a ferocious war against terrorism to protect lives and property, defend the republican regime... the civil state and its institutions," Prime Minister Habib Essid told parliament. 

"We would not have felt obliged to decree the state of emergency if we were not convinced that our country was facing numerous terrorist plans to destabilise the country," he said.

He spoke of "the gangs of terrorism, murder and crime preparing other operations... aimed at killing the maximum number of people, undermining morale and grinding the national economy to a halt." 

Essebsi spoke as rights groups warned the state of emergency should not suppress freedoms gained since the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.