TUNIS: Two suspected militants were killed on Wednesday during a security operation near the Tunisian capital against a cell planning “simultaneous” attacks, the Interior Ministry said.
Sixteen others were arrested during the operation in Ariana province just outside Tunis, and Kalashnikov assault rifles, pistols and ammunition were seized, it said.
The ministry said the suspects had gathered in the area from different parts of the country “to prepare simultaneous terrorist operations.”
A resident of the Sanhaji district told AFP that a two-hour gunbattle erupted with the suspects after the national guard launched the raid at around 8 a.m. (0700 GMT).
“They were not from the neighborhood. We didn’t know them. They rented the house recently,” she said.
Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, has suffered from a wave of militant violence since its 2011 revolution that ousted former ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Daesh claimed brazen attacks last year on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis and a beach resort near Sousse that killed a total of 60 people, all but one of them foreign tourists.
A November suicide bombing in the capital, also claimed by Daesh, killed 12 presidential guards and prompted the authorities to declare a state of emergency.
Thousands of Tunisians have joined militant groups in conflict zones such as Iraq, Syria and Libya over the past few years.
2 suspected militants shot dead near Tunis
2 suspected militants shot dead near Tunis
Israel agrees to ‘limited reopening’ of Rafah crossing: PM’s office
- The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it would allow a “limited reopening” of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt once it had recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.
The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza.
Reopening Rafah forms part of a Gaza truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed after Israeli forces took control of it during the war.
The Israeli military also said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, a non-commissioned officer in the police’s elite Yassam unit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the reopening would depend on “the return of all living hostages and a 100 percent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said on X.
It said Israel’s military was “currently conducting a focused operation to exhaust all of the intelligence that has been gathered in the effort to locate and return” Gvili’s body.
“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” it said.
