TUNIS: Six members of Tunisia’s security forces were killed Sunday in a “terrorist attack” near the border with Algeria, the interior ministry said, the country’s deadliest such incident in over two years.
A national guard border patrol in the Ain Sultan area of the Jenduba border province “was hit in a landmine ambush that killed six agents” at 11:45 am (1045 GMT), the ministry said in a statement.
Ministry spokesman General Sufyan al-Zaq said the blast was a “terrorist attack” and that assailants had “opened fire on security forces” after the mine exploded. “Combing operations” were underway, said Zaq, who had earlier told AFP that eight guards were killed in the attack.
No group has claimed the attack, which took place in a mountainous border area where the Al-Qaeda-linked Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion and the Tunisian branch of the Islamic State group, Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate), are active.
Sunday’s assault marks the first major attack in Tunisia since a March 2016 attack on security installations in the town of Ben Guerdane on the Libyan border. That attack killed 13 security forces and seven civilians.
Harvey Weinstein. — AFP FileNEW YORK: Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for sexual assault and rape was...
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan on Sept. 13, 2016. — Slate website WASHINGTON: U.S. Supreme Court justices, wading back...
A representational image of inmates behind jail bars. — Unsplash/FileMOSCOW: A Russian court on Wednesday ordered...
Sudanese soldiers guard the surrounding area of the UNMIS compound in El-Fasher, the administrative capital of North...
US quietly shipped ATACMS missiles to Ukraine. — Report news agencyWASHINGTON: The United States in recent weeks...
US President Joe Biden during his address in California. — AFP FileWASHINGTON: President Joe Biden signed a...