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| Africa North |
| Tunisian troops battle Islamist militants near Algerian border |
| 2013-03-19 |
| Tunisian troops clashed with Islamist militants near the border with Algeria on Tuesday, a security source said, in an area where the army is hunting al Qaeda-linked fighters. Tunisia, economically struggling and deeply polarized between Islamists and their opponents, is in the throes of a political transition that began with the overthrow of strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in a popular uprising two years ago. The Islamist-led government is struggling to restore stability following the assassination of secular opposition figure Chokri Belaid on February 6 which provoked widespread unrest. The security source said Tuesday's clash took place in the northwest town of Tajrouin, in Kef province, between the army and six members of a "terrorist group". There were no immediate reports of casualties. The source said the militants were Salafists, who adhere to a puritanical interpretation of Islam, but did not specify their nationalities. The cause of the fighting was unclear, but security forces have been attempting to track down al Qaeda-linked militants near the borders with Algeria and Libya over the past six weeks. They suspect the fighters are attempting to bring weapons into the country from Algeria, where Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is active, and from Libya, which has been unstable since a 2011 revolution. Last month, police seized a big weapons cache in Tunis. In December, Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said police had arrested 16 Islamist militants who had been accumulating arms with the aim of creating an Islamic state. They were linked to AQIM, the regional arm of the global militant al Qaeda network, and had been planning to attack security headquarters, he said. |
| Posted by:tipper |