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Tunis (AFP) – Six members of the Tunisian security forces were killed on Sunday in a "terrorist attack" near the Algerian border, the Interior Ministry reported, the deadliest incident country in two years.
Tunisia is hoping for its best tourist season since a wave of jihadist attacks in 2015 plunged the number of visitors
A National Guard patrol in the region of Ain Sultan in the border province of Jenduba "was hit by an ambush Ministry spokesman General Sufyan al-Zaq said the explosion was a" terrorist attack "and that the attackers" opened fire on Security forces "after the coup d'etat The mine exploded.
" Combing "operations were in progress, said Zaq, who told AFP that eight guards had been killed during the attack
No group claimed responsibility for the attack that took place in a mountainous border area Okba Ibn Naf, linked to al-Qaeda A battalion and the Tunisian branch of the group Islamic State, Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate), are active.
"We are s aware that the war on terror will be long, "said Interior Minister Ghazi Jeribi" We will go to their burrows (the terrorists) and we will avenge the Tunisian people, "said Jeribi, who received the Order to go to Jenduba. 19659009] The attack may exacerbate an ongoing political crisis in Tunisia, where Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, who recently fired the previous interior minister, is facing the heat of his own allies.
Attacks are regularly carried out along the Algerian border. It was the first time in two years that security forces were suffering such a loss.
The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs "strongly condemned the terrorist attack."
– The "Restoration" of Tourism –
A March 2016 Attac k on security facilities in the city of Ben Guerdane on the Libyan border.
This attack killed 13 members of the security forces and seven civilians
The Tunisian tourism industry is still rebounding against a series of devastating attacks in 2015. The National Bardo Museum in Tunis and another targeting a seaside resort in Sousse that killed together 59 foreign tourists and a Tunisian guard.
In May, Tourism Minister Selma Elloumi Rekik said that the industry had experienced a "real recovery". People come back to Tunisia because there is security … we are at the same level (of security) as any European city, "she said.
Since the 2011 uprising that overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, jihadist attacks In Tunisia, dozens of members of the security forces and foreign tourists were killed.
Since the fall of Ben Ali, "at least 127 activists and 118 soldiers, national guards and police were killed in the northwest. "Figures compiled by badyst Matt Herbert and published in June by the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace
" This new attack shows that There are still pockets where security problems have not been solved, "he told AFP Sunday," The vast majority of Tunisia remains safe. "
country has been in a state of emergency since November 2015, when a terrorist attack was suicide at the AU killed 12 presidential guards.
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