Militants kill three Tunisian soldiers in ambush near Algerian border

TUNIS: Islamist militants killed three Tunisian soldiers and wounded seven others on Monday, opening fire on them with rifles and rocket propelled grenades after their patrol hit anti-tank landmines, an army spokesman said.

Jihadists use the remote, mountainous region along the Algerian border as a base and the military has been hunting them down in the rugged terrain with patrols and air strikes on suspected training camps.

Army spokesman Belhassen Ouslati said the three soldiers had been killed in the landmine blast and that clashes were continuing after the ambush in the Mount Sammama area.

Since the 2011 uprising against autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia’s democracy has been held up as a model for a region wracked by violence and instability.

But Islamist militants are one of the key challenges for the new Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, who officially took office on Monday.