Security: Tunisia Troops Wounded in Clash With Militants

Area where Tunisian soldiers have engaged armed rebels.

Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Al-Arabiya

Three members of Tunisia’s security forces were wounded Tuesday when militants near the border with Algeria shot at the helicopter they were travelling in, security and medical officials said.

The two soldiers and a national guardsman received treatment but their wounds were not serious enough to be admitted for more medical care, said a source in the hospital in Kasserine where the men were taken.

A security source said the three men were in a helicopter fired on by an armed “terrorist” group as they flew over Mount Semmama.

The area is near the Mount Chaambi region, where for more than a year and a half Tunisian security forces have been hunting Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists who have launched bloody attacks on the army.

In July, the suspected jihadists killed 15 soldiers in the restive border region, the bloodiest day in the army’s history.

And two more soldiers were killed on July 26 in the Kef region further north.

Since the 2011 revolution that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has faced a resurgence in jihadists, who were among Islamist groups suppressed by the previous regime.