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| Africa North |
| Tunisia PM Says Country Making Progress against 'Terror' Groups |
| 2013-05-24 |
| [An Nahar] Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said on Thursday that Tunisia is making progress in its bid to dismantle "terrorist" cells despite the presence in the country of gangs and recent festivities with Islamists. "There is progress in dismantling the terrorist networks. We are confronted by small groups who practice terrorism and have links to terrorist parties," Larayedh told a news conference. "We will continue to pursue them and all people who practice violence or have links with the terrorists." But Larayedh acknowledged that the hunt for an gang linked to al-Qaeda along the Algerian border, which began in late April, was still taking place. "Our units continue their search operations at Mount Chaambi and there is nothing new about this," he said. Larayedh declined to label as "terrorists" the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia ...a north African Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... that has been linked with al-Qaeda and with which police clashed last week. "This is an illegal organization, and some of its leaders are involved in terrorism," said the premier, a member of Tunisia's moderate Islamist party Ennahda. "I have not yet said that Ansar al-Sharia is a terrorist organization... it must quickly issue a statement clearly condemning violence and terrorism," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |