Militants attack Tunisian forces near Libyan border, 53 killed

Mar 09, 2016, 16:40

The fighting in the border town of Ben Guerdane in eastern Tunisia comes amid increasing concern that violent extremism in Libya could destabilize the region.

The military were exploding grenades to avoid their accidental detonation, the Tunisian Mosaique FM said, citing a source in the Ben Gardane security forces.

The government said that an army barracks and police and National Guard posts in Ben Guerdane came under attack in coordinated pre-dawn assaults.

Last Wednesday, troops killed five militants in a firefight outside the town in which a civilian was also killed and a commander wounded. Tunisia closed its border with Libya and the Tunisian interior and defense ministers traveled to the town to oversee the operation, according to a joint statement from their ministries. The two ministries went on to call on residents of the town "to remain at home". Three month later, an attack on a beach resort in Sousse left 38 people dead, many of them British nationals.

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Tunisia is in northern Africa, sandwiched between Algeria and Libya.

Essebsi said Monday: "This is an unprecedented attack, planned and organized".

The U.S. State Department strongly condemned the "cowardly attack", while reaffirming Washington's commitment to "Tunisia's security and to our close partnership to meet common security challenges throughout the region".

It is unclear if ISIS was at all involved in today's incident, but Libya has a huge number of different factions, many hostile toward the Tunisian government, so it would be a mistake to label it obviously ISIS. The country saw a bus attack last November that killed 12 people in the capital, Tunis.

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Gunmen apparently crossing from Libya attacked a Tunisian border garrison on Monday, officials said, raising worries about Islamic State fighters and other militants gaining greater footholds in North Africa.

The militants have taken advantage of a power vacuum since the NATO-backed overthrow of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 to set up bases in several areas of Libya, including the Sabratha area between Tripoli and the Tunisian border.

"This attack is just reinforcing the urgent need for a political solution in Libya", the ministry said, adding that the country was targeted because of its "exemplary democratic transition". As a result, Tunisian security forces were placed on alert based on "precise information" of possible border infiltrations following the February 19 raid.

Defence minister Farhat Horchani said last week that German and American security experts were expected in Tunis on Monday to help Tunisia devise a new electronic video-surveillance system of its border with Libya.

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Intelligence agencies said that more than 3,000 Tunisians have joined Islamic State and fighting in Syria and Iraq.