At least 45 people, including civilians and a customs agent, were killed in clashes not far from a beach resort town near the Libya-Tunisia border.
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The attack left 35 “terrorists”, seven civilians and 11 members of Tunisia’s security forces dead, according to the joint government statement.
Political turbulence in neighboring Libya enabled Islamic State to infiltrate that oil-rich country in 2014 and declare the establishment of an emirate, with the Libyan city of Surt as its headquarters.
In November, at least 13 presidential guards were killed in a suicide bombing in the capital Tunis, in an attack claimed by Daesh terrorist group. “They wanted to try to control the Ben Guerdan region and name it as their new Wilaya”, President Beji Caid Essebsi said, referring to the name Islamic State uses for regions it considers part of its self-described caliphate.
Ben Gardane is a major border town near Libya, and has been accused of being a hub for arms smuggling by militants around the border.
In addition to an overnight curfew that was announced in Ben Gardane, Tunisian authorities closed two border crossings with Libya.
Tunisia is especially anxious about the Islamic State presence in Libya after dozens of tourists were killed in attacks in Tunisia past year.
Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said on Wtaniya television that the attack was an Islamic State attempt to carve out a stronghold on the border.
“The vast majority of Tunisians are at war against this barbarism and those rats that we will definitely exterminate”, Essebsi said.
Libyan Foreign Minister Ali Abu-Zakouk, of the Tripoli government, told The Associated Press that the attackers aimed at “gaining grounds and controlling territory”.
Tunisian authorities say 26 people have been killed in clashes between Tunisian police and unidentified gunmen near the Libyan border.
Hospital official Abdelkrim Sakroud said on state radio that three bodies had been taken to the hospital, including that of a 12-year-old girl. The gunmen entered the city at dawn, targeting a police station and military facilities, and witnesses say corpses have been left in the street and gunmen are hiding inside houses. Officials reportedly anticipated the attack on the barracks, but were surprised at the large number of attackers. The government urged residents to stay indoors.
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Protests over scarce jobs and an ineffective government also drove similar unrest five years ago and spurred authoritarian President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali to flee in January 2011, making Tunisia the first of what would become several nations in the Arabic-speaking region in North Africa and the Middle East where popular uprisings led to the ouster of longtime leaders.
