Tunisia Soldiers has arrested 32 militants planning to attack major targets in the capital, Tunis, and other cities in the previous three days, a Tunisian official says.
“Counter-terrorism forces foiled plots to carry out spectacular attacks against vital installations, including the Interior Ministry, security stations and civilian buildings in the capital, Tunis,” said Mohammed Ali Aroui, a spokesman for the country’s Interior Ministry, on Saturday.
He added that the Tunisian troops killed Tunisian and Algerian militants in Mount Chaambi near the Algerian border, and managed to arrest "several terrorists [who had] returned from fighting in Syria."
Some 3,000 Tunisians are estimated to be fighting in Syria. While a few hundred have come back to their homeland, many others have been arrested.
This came only one day aftert the coalition government, led by Prime Minister Habib Essid, took office.
Essid has said that fighting terror and strengthening “security capabilities to confront terrorism and the protection of the democratic transition” is one of the new government’s priorities.
The new government, which includes ministers from the premier’s secular Nidaa Tounes party and the Islamic party, Ennahda, needs to face the challenge of terrorists that emerged after 2011.
Tunisia, the birthplace of pro-democracy protests across North Africa and the Middle East, revolted against the Western-backed dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in 2011.
According to the UN figures, more than 300 people were killed and hundreds injured in the security forces’ crackdown on popular protests that led to Ben Ali’s ouster.
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