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| Africa North |
| Tunisia Guards Badly Wounded in Hunt for Gunmen |
| 2013-04-30 |
| [An Nahar] A land mine kaboom seriously maimed two members of Tunisia's national guard on Monday as they pursued a group of armed Islamists near the Algerian border, the interior minister said. The men were "seriously maimed by the kaboom of a mine while they were conducting a search operation at Mount Chaambi targeting terrorist elements on the run," the ministry said, referring to Islamist beturbanned goons. It said one of the victims lost a leg and that the other was seriously maimed in the eyes. It did not say whether the mine was laid by those being pursued in the operation, or if it was a part of the security infrastructure along Tunisia's long and porous western border with Algeria, where arms trafficking is common. Later on Monday, after security reinforcements had been sent to the region, a third soldier also had his leg blown off when a second land mine detonated, a security official told Agence La Belle France Presse. The report could not verified independently. "According to preliminary reports, the mines were laid by the (runaway) group," which is thought to be hiding in the mountainous region, the security official said. A shootout that took place earlier in the day had complicated the evacuation of the two guards who were finally taken to hospital in the region capital Kasserine where they were operated on, medical and security sources said. The inaccessible Mount Chaambi region has been repeatedly targeted in search operations by the security forces since last December when a policeman was killed in festivities with gunnies in the area. Shortly afterwards, the authorities claimed to have broken up an al-Qaeda recruitment cell and nabbed Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! 16 suspected members. |
| Posted by:Fred |