Tunisian army attacks Al-Qaeda affiliate group in Kasserine

The Tunisian Ministry of Defence announced yesterday that clashes broke out between the army forces and an Al-Qaeda affiliate group in the Kasserine province on the border with Algeria.

Ministry spokesman Colonel Belhassen Oueslati said confrontations continue between the army and the militants and that the ministry “will announce the military operation’s outcome after its completion”.

Oueslati explained that the army began a military operation against the terrorists who beheaded 16-year-old Mabrook Al-Sultani in the central province of Sidi Bouzid and sent his head to his family after accusing him of spying for the military.

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A security source in Kasserine said that clashes began around mid-day and that three terrorists and one soldier have been killed.

In December last year, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Uqba Bin Nafi Battalion claimed responsibility for the murder of two shepherds in Kasserine claiming they were spying for the army.

According to Tunisian authorities, the group is active in the mountains of Kasserine, Kef and Jendouba near the border with Algeria.

Earlier in March, the police announced that it had killed nine of the battalion’s senior members including its Algerian leader Khaled Shayeb known as Luqman Abu Sakhr.