Tunisian armed forces launch air strikes on “militants”
Tunisian warplanes carried out airstrikes on Monday on the positions of al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels in the western border region where eight soldiers were killed in an ambush two weeks ago, media reports said.
Fighter jets attacked the Jebel Sammama area of the Mount Chambi region, on the border with Algeria, the country’s Mosaique FM radio and Business News website reported.
Mosaique FM quoted unnamed military and medical sources as saying a number of suspected radicals had been killed in the strikes.
The army began the offensive on Sunday, pounding the area with artillery fire, the reports said.
Business News reported that three terrorist suspects had been killed in Sunday’s operations. Mosaique FM reported that four insurgents had been killed and several injured on Sunday.
The army says it has been hunting a cell linked to the al-Qaeda in the “Maghreb group”, which operates out of northern Mali since December.
A number of soldiers have been killed in the wider operation.
On July 29 eight troops were shot dead when their vehicle was ambushed. Several more have been killed by landmines.
The operations come in the midst of a political crisis in Tunisia, deepened by the assassination on July 25 of opposition deputy Mohamed Brahmi.
The opposition is calling on the government to resign.
M.D