With the municipal elections approaching… terrorism news dominates the Tunisian scene
Two weeks before the Tunisian local elections, boycotted by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Tunisian Ministry of Interior announced the arrest of (4) wanted terrorists, including two women, as part of a national campaign to track down terrorists.
According to a statement issued by the ministry on Friday, the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of First Instance in Kef (northwest) instructed a security center in the capital, Tunis, to detain a woman wanted in terrorism cases. She is the wife of a dangerous terrorist who has been in prison since 2016. Information received by the head of a security center in one of the capital’s neighborhoods indicated suspicions about the movements of a woman who had rented a house recently, avoiding communication with neighbors, and having limited movements.
Intensifying investigations into the suspect revealed that she was wanted by the Research and Inspection Unit of the National Guard in Kef for suspicion of joining a terrorist organization. Her movements were closely monitored before setting up a trap for her arrest.
Further investigation revealed that she is judicially wanted for several terrorism cases and is the wife of a dangerous terrorist convicted and imprisoned for several years due to involvement in serious terrorist cases.
On the same day, the Tunisian Ministry of Interior announced the arrest of (3) wanted terrorists as part of preemptive operations to track down terrorists. The ministry confirmed the arrest of a “Takfiri wanted by security units and various judicial structures for ‘belonging to a terrorist organization,’ sentenced to one year in prison, in the Siliana Governorate in the northwest of the country.”
In the neighborhood of Solidarity, one of the largest popular districts in the capital Tunis, security forces arrested a wanted Takfiri on the same charge, who is also sentenced to one year in prison.
In the Monastir Governorate in the east of the country, security forces arrested a young man and a girl wanted by security units and various judicial structures for belonging to a terrorist organization, according to the same source.
In the context of these operations, Colonel Houssem Eddine Jbabli, the spokesperson for the Tunisian National Guard, which includes the country’s elite security forces, revealed that forces belonging to the Guard recently discovered military uniforms on Mount Saloum in the Kasserine Governorate in the central west of the country, not far from the Algerian-Tunisian border.
According to preliminary information, these are uniforms of (7) military or security personnel stolen previously by terrorist groups in the mountainous and forested areas connecting Tunisia and Algeria. The case has been referred to the judiciary.
According to official Tunisian, Algerian, and Libyan sources, most members of these extremist terrorist groups belonged to organizations such as Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, Ansar al-Sharia, ISIS, and armed factions with a strong presence in several Maghreb countries, Mali, and other countries in the Sahel and African desert region.
Tunisian security forces, security sources, and judicial authorities have previously revealed theft operations of military and security uniforms, suspected to be carried out by terrorist groups in the mountainous areas of the Kasserine region and other border provinces.
It is worth noting that the Tunisian authorities have recently intensified inspections and tracking of terrorist elements to control the security situation, especially with the approaching date of the elections for the Council of Regions and Provinces scheduled for December 24th.
Tunisian President Kais Saied emphasized his determination to track those suspected of involvement in political assassinations and political violence in the past, especially the assassinations of leftist opposition figures Mohamed Brahmi and Chokri Belaid in 2013.
