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| Africa North |
| Tunisian Army Continues Hunt for Jihadists |
| 2013-05-04 |
| [An Nahar] Tunisia's army Friday pressed its hunt for a jihadist group hiding out in a border region with Algeria, an operation in which 15 security force members have been maimed, the interior ministry said. "The search operations by the defense forces and the national guard are continuing on Mount Chaambi," ministry front man Mohamed Ali Aroui told Agence La Belle France Presse. He refused to give further details on the search or comment on ongoing operations in the Kef region further north, also close to the Algerian border, where another jihadist cell is being targeted by the security forces. The army said on Thursday that the situation was "under control." On the ground, troops have formed a security barrier around Mount Chaambi and set up checkpoints at the entrance to the picturesque provincial capital Kasserine, with reinforcements arriving on Thursday, an AFP journalist reported. Tunisian forces have been hunting in the mountainous western region for the gang since it attacked a border post in December killing a member of the national guard, or auxiliary police. The search has intensified this week, with around 15 soldiers and national guards maimed since Monday, some seriously, by homemade landmines laid by the gunnies, in the operation to flush them out. The army says there have been no direct festivities, but that its men are using mortar fire and light weapons to demine the area, with members of the security forces saying they have recovered weapons and manuals on making explosives. The standoff in Mount Chaambi appears to be the worst of its kind since festivities in 2007 between the army and Islamists in Soliman, near Tunis, in which a soldier, two policeman and 11 Islamists died. |
| Posted by:Fred |