Tunisian forces repelled a militant assault on Monday (Mar 7) on a town near the Libyan border, killing 35 assailants in what authorities said was a thwarted effort to establish an Islamic emirate.
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The renewed fighting came after about 50 extremists attacked the town of Ben Guerdane on Monday, promoting fighting that left 55 people dead. Residents were being urged to stay indoors even before the start of the night-time curfew.
The United States has said that about 6,500 Islamist State fighters are in Libya, many of whom are originally from Tunisia. United Kingdom military experts are helping the Tunisian army to protect its borders, while German and U.S. experts are supposed to train more Tunisian troops about border security.
“The vast majority of Tunisians are at war against this barbarism and those rats that we will definitely exterminate”, Essebsi said.
“Now they know Tunisia is no easy pushover and that it is not so simple to set up an emirate in Ben Guerdane”.
The violence comes amid increasing global concern about Islamic State extremists in Libya and after dozens of tourists were killed in extremist attacks in Tunisia past year. ‘But the people in the south can be confident the army and police will win against this barbarity across the border’.
“Most Tunisians are in a state of war against this recklessness, against these rats”, he said, referring to the Islamic State. Tunisian security forces had been placed on alert on the basis of “precise information” of possible border infiltrations after a February 19 USA airstrike on an Islamic State camp near the Libyan town of Sabratha, not far from the Tunisian border, the French statement said.
Islamist militants trained in jihadist camps across the border in Libya carried out several attacks on Tunisia past year, including the attacks on the Tunis Bardo museum and a Sousse beach hotel targeting foreign tourists.
Powerful explosions heard in the Tunisian city of Ben Gardane near the border with Libya on Tuesday were the sound of the military destroying grenades seized from attackers, local media reported.
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Tunisia’s government says the death toll in clashes between gunmen and security forces in a town bordering Libya has risen to 53.
