Jihadist cell dismantled in central Tunisia

Tunisia, March 17th Tunisian counter-terrorism units have dismantled a suspected jihadist cell in the city of Kairouan (center) composed of four people active inside and outside the country, local radio Mosaic FM reported Thursday. According to the source, among those arrested are a “lone” soldier, a university professor residing in Qatar and two people working in the commercial sector; all of them were made available to the Tunisian anti-terrorism court after consultation with the prosecutor's office and the opening of an investigation. During this preventive operation, units of the National Guard in Kairouan and an anti-terrorist brigade in L'Aouina (capital) also seized three vehicles and a total of 65,000 dinars (20,000 euros). The day before, counter-terrorism brigades had dismantled another suspected cell known as “El Mouahidoun” (Les Almohades) in Tataouine province (south), consisting of six members who reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) leader and radicalised the region's youth, the Interior Ministry reported. Last Saturday, Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine told a meeting of governors that the security situation in the country is “stable and under control” and welcomed the significant arrests and “historic successes” of his department, which is working “quietly” in the fight against terrorism. Jihadist groups “Jund al Khilafa” (Soldiers of the Caliphate) and Okba Ibn Nafaa — the local branch of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization — have taken refuge in the mountainous region bordering Algeria and have set up numerous mines to attack security forces. In 2020, the authorities dismantled at least 33 Takfirist ideology cells and arrested a total of 1,020 people for their involvement in terrorist organizations. They also conducted 48 operations in which nine suspected terrorists were eliminated, while another 876 people appeared before the specialized organized crime court, 112 of whom were sentenced to prison terms. According to figures from the private American center for research and studies on jihadist movements “The Soufian Group”, in 2015, the date of the peak of Islamic State activity, Tunisians were the fourth nationality among its foreign fighters, behind Saudi Arabia, Russia and Jordan. In 2015, the Maghreb country suffered a series of jihadist attacks that killed 72 people, including 60 foreign tourists, and since then it has been under a state of emergency, which continues without interruption. CHIEF nrm/ft