Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Africa North

Tunisia says AQIM leader killed in anti-terror raid

2019-10-21

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An al-Qaeda leader was killed and another maimed during an anti-terror raid in Tunisia on Sunday, according to the country’s defense ministry.

Tunisian armed forces and national guardsmen led the operation against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the mountainous Kasserine region near the Algerian border, ministry front man Mohammed Zekri told AFP.

"A terrorist leader from the Okba Ibn Nafaa group was killed" and another injured in the ongoing operation, he said.

Okba Ibn Nafaa is the Tunisian branch of AQIM.

Various murderous Moslem groups are active in the rugged frontier region of Kasserine, including the ISIS
ISIS

...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
-affiliated Jund al-Khalifa, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate."

Security forces regularly carry out raids in the area.

Tunisia faced a rise in murderous Moslem activity after its 2011 revolution, with attacks killing dozens of security personnel, civilians and foreign tourists.

While the security situation has significantly improved since a series of deadly attacks in 2015, Tunisia has maintained a state of emergency for four years and assaults against security forces have persisted.

Link

Africa North

Tunisia convicts dozens of jihadists over teen beheading

2019-01-10

[PULSE.NG] A Tunisian court has convicted dozens of jihadists over the 2015 murder of a teenage shepherd, but the vast majority remain on the run, a prosecution spokesman said Wednesday.

Mabrouk Soltani, 17, was beheaded as his sheep grazed on Mount Mghilla in central west Tunisia.

The details of the murder sparked outrage, with the victim's cousin forced to watch and carry his head to the family home.

A total of 49 people were convicted on Tuesday over the murder, including 45 in absentia, the prosecutor's spokesman Sofiene Sliti said.

Four were sentenced to death, one of whom is in custody, while the others were sentenced to between 15 and 36 years in prison.

Tunisian courts continue to issue death sentences despite no executions being carried out since 1991.

Those convicted over Soltani's killing were prosecuted under Tunisia's 2015 anti-terror legislation.

The murder was claimed by the Tunisian branch of the Islamic State group, Jund al-Khilafa, in a video which showed the killing.

Two years later, Soltani's brother Khalifa was abducted and killed in the same area, in an attack also claimed by IS.

The mountainous area near the Algerian border is also a stronghold of the Al-Qaeda-linked Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion.

Since its 2011 revolution, Tunisia has experienced an increase in jihadist attacks that have killed dozens of members of the security forces and at least 59 foreign tourists.

The country has been under a state of emergency since November 2015, when an IS-claimed suicide bombing in Tunis killed 12 presidential guards.

Link

Africa North

Tunisia Pays Tribute to Security Forces Killed in Jihadist Attack

2018-07-10

[AnNahar] Tunisia paid tribute on Monday to six members of its security forces killed the day before along the border with Algeria in the country's bloodiest jihadist attack in more than two years.

The attack comes as Tunisia prepares for what it hopes will be a surge in tourism after a spate of jihadist attacks in 2015 sent visitor numbers plunging.

After the ceremony at the national guard base close to the capital, hundreds of people watched as several of the dead were laid to rest.

A large procession led by members of the armed forces accompanied the body of guardsman Arbi Guizeni through the Tunis suburb of Douar Hicher.

The six national guard members were killed, and three others maimed, when their cars were attacked Sunday morning with an improvised bomb in the Ain Sultan area of the Jendouba border province.

The three maimed guards were transferred to a military hospital in Tunis and their condition was stable on Monday, said guard front man Colonel Houssemeddine Jebabli.

He said search operations launched Sunday were continuing but no arrests had been made.

Okba Ibn Nafaa,

...on occasion spelt Uqba bin Nafi Brigade, they’ve fought since 2012 with security forces in Tunisia's mountainous interior. In 2014 they joined forces with Ansar al Sharia to form Al Qaeda in Tunisia, although later they also supported ISIS and their big attacks were claimed by both. At that time the new organization was headed by Bejaia native and explosives expert Khaled Chaieb (aka Lokman Abou Sakhr). Throughout their existence they’ve encouraged people to go abroad for jihad. ....

a Tunisia-based division of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), late on Sunday grabbed credit for the attack and said it had killed nine soldiers, according to the SITE Intelligence Group that monitors jihadist activity online.

Okba Ibn Nafaa and the Tunisian branch of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group, Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate), are active in the mountainous border region where the attack took place.

Link

Africa North

Tunisian security forces down al-Qaeda operative

2018-01-23

More on this story from yesterday.

[AAWSAT] Tunisian special forces have killed Bilel Kobi, a senior Algerian member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Kobi, who was killed in an ambush when he was on a mission to reorganize AQIM's Tunisian branch, was the top aide to Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the leader of the organization.

The operation took place near the Algerian border in the Mount Sammama area of central-western Tunisia.

Kobi had been charged with overseeing links between the terrorist network and its Tunisian branch. He had joined terrorist groups in the area at the age of 15.

Another Algerian, Bechir Bin Neji, thought to have been the commander of an AQMI cell in the Sammama region, was also found dead with an assault rifle by his side, Tunisian interior ministry spokesman Khlifa Chibani said.

Bin Neji was the leader of Okba Ibn Nafaa in the Semmama mountain, he said.

The dead militant had joined terrorist groups in Algeria in 2003 before becoming a member of Okba Ibn Nafaa 10 years later.

Link

Africa North

Tunisian forces kill top aide of Al Qaeda leader in Maghreb

2018-01-22

[Ynet] Tunisian security forces have killed a top aide of Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the leader of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an official source told Rooters on Saturday.

Tunisia has been on high alert since 2015, when Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
button men killed dozens of foreign tourists in a museum in the capital, Tunis, and on a beach in the resort city of Sousse.

Algerian Bilel Kobi was "the right arm of Abou Wadoud" and was killed in an ambush near the Algerian border when on a mission to reorganize AQIM's Tunisian branch following strikes by Tunisian forces against it, the source told Rooters.

Last year Tunisian forces killed Islamist holy warriors including Mourad Chaieb, the Algerian leader of Okba Ibn Nafaa, a group that has fought for years with security forces in Tunisia's mountainous interior.

The country also faces a potential threat from Tunisian holy warriors returning from abroad. More than 3,000 are thought to have left to fight for jihadist groups in Syria, Iraq and Libya over the past years.

Link

Africa North

Tunisia dismantles 'terrorist cell' in growing crackdown

2017-01-05

[AlAhram] Tunisian security forces have dismantled a 13-member "terrorist cell" that was funnelling young recruits to myrmidon groups, authorities said Wednesday, as part of a growing crackdown on holy warriors.

The suspects, aged between 22 and 43, were jugged
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
on Tuesday in Hergla, a town north of the coastal resort city of Sousse, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Members of the cell held "secret meetings in a mosque" and admitted to recruiting and sending 12 youths to fight with Islamist myrmidon groups abroad, it said, linking it to the Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion, a group connected to al-Qaeda.

It was the seventh announcement in less than a week of arrests of alleged "terrorists" in Tunisia, which has detained more than 70 people in a widening crackdown on Islamist ~~bandidos~~ murderous Moslems since December 25.

Authorities stepped up their efforts after Tunisian Anis Amri was identified as the primary suspect in last month's attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people.

Amri was rubbed out by police in the Italian city of Milan four days after the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group.

Since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has been battling an Islamist myrmidon movement that has killed dozens of soldiers and coppers as well as civilians including 59 foreign tourists.

Some 3,000 Tunisians have joined the ranks of myrmidon groups fighting in neighbouring Libya, as well as in Syria and Iraq, according to officials. The United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
puts the figure at 5,000.

Tunisia's government said last week that it had incarcerated
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
or closely monitored 800 ~~bandidos~~ murderous Moslems who had returned from foreign battlefields.

Concern has been growing for the threat posed by returning myrmidons, with the national union for security forces last month urging the government to take "exceptional measures" against them.

Link

Africa North

Tunisia breaks up Al Qaeda cell near Sousse: Interior ministry

2016-12-30

[AlAhram] Tunisian security forces said on Thursday that they had broken up an al Qaeda-linked holy warrior cell with 10 members that was active near the coastal city of Sousse.

The interior ministry said in a statement that the group had used the Telegram encrypted messaging system to communicate with associates inside and outside Tunisia, and was plotting to carry out "terrorist operations", without giving further details.

The cell had links to Okba Ibn Nafaa, an al Qaeda-linked group based in the Mount Chaambi range near the Algerian border that has claimed attacks against Tunisian security forces, the statement said. Its members were aged between 25 and 45 and included two women, it added.

Tunisia has struggled to contain Islamist militancy since its 2011 uprising, suffering three major attacks last year including one in which 38 foreign tourists were killed by a gunman on a beach in Sousse.

Tunisian security forces said recently that they had dismantled 160 jihadist cells in the first 10 months of this year, about 45 percent more than during the whole of 2015.

Link

Africa North

Tunisia breaks up two Qaeda-linked cells

2016-05-07

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Tunisian forces have dismantled two al-Qaeda-linked cells that had been planning to carry out attacks against shopping malls and political parties, the interior ministry said Thursday.

Nine people were placed in durance vile
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
during the operation against the cells that had pledged allegiance to the Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion, a group linked to al-Qaeda.

The operation took place on an unspecified date in the Kef region, which borders Algeria.

Explosives were seized from one of the cells that had been preparing to attack shopping centres, military and security installations, and politicians or parties, said the ministry.

The second cell of five members had procured financial assistance and sent provisions to a "group of terrorists" holed up in the same mountainous area, it said in a statement.

Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings, has been plagued by Islamist violence since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

In March 2015, jihadist gunnies killed 21 tourists and a policeman at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis.

And in June, 30 Britons were among 38 foreign holidaymakers killed in a gun and grenade attack on a beach resort near the Tunisian city of Sousse.

Link

Africa North

Tunisia breaks up two Qaeda-linked cells

2016-05-06

[AlAhram] Tunisian forces have dismantled two Al-Qaeda-linked cells that had been planning to carry out attacks against shopping malls and political parties, the interior ministry said Thursday.

Nine people were tossed in the slammer
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
during the operation against the cells that had pledged allegiance to the Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion, a group linked to Al-Qaeda.

The operation took place on an unspecified date in the Kef region, which borders Algeria.

Explosives were seized from one of the cells that had been preparing to attack shopping centres, military and security installations, and politicians or parties, said the ministry.

The second cell of five members had procured financial assistance and sent provisions to a "group of terrorists" holed up in the same mountainous area, it said in a statement.

Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings, has been plagued by Islamist violence since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In March 2015, myrmidon gunnies killed 21 tourists and a policeman at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis. And in June, 30 Britons were among 38 foreign holidaymakers killed in a gun and grenade attack on a beach resort near the Tunisian city of Sousse.

Link

Africa North

Tunisian Border Guard Killed in Shootout with Extremist Militants

2015-08-26

[ALMANAR.LB] A Tunisian border guard was killed in a shootout with Lion of Islam murderous Moslems on the border with Algeria, officials said Monday, in an attack claimed by the North African country's main Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
group.

Finance Minister Slim Chaker said one guard was killed and three others maimed when they were "attacked close to the Bouchebka border post" late Sunday.

"We are taking measures to transport (the maimed) to a military hospital as soon as possible," he told Mosaique FM radio, adding two guards were in a serious condition.

Ridha Ennasri, president of the union of border guards, confirmed to AFP that a border guard was killed in "a terrorist attack".

The shooting was claimed by the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigades, an Al-Qaeda-linked Lion of Islam organization that has claimed a string of attacks in Tunisia.

In a message circulated on Takfiri forums the group said it had "ambushed" the guards.

The killing comes days after a Tunisian policeman was rubbed out by two assailants on a cycle of violence in the coastal resort of Sousse.

Authorities have been unable to say whether that killing was carried out by murderous Moslems and an investigation is ongoing.

In June, a Takfiri gunman killed 30 Britons and eight other foreign tourists on a beach in Sousse in an attack claimed by the Takfiri group, ISIL (so-called Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
in Iraq and Levant).

Link

Africa North

Militants attack Tunisian customs officers near Algerian border, one killed: source

2015-08-25

[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Islamist murderous Moslem gunnies opened fire on a Tunisian customs team near the Algerian border, killing one customs agent and wounding three more, a security source said on Monday.

The attack on a customs vehicle late on Sunday was in Bouchbka, in central Kasserine province, where Islamist murderous Moslems belonging to Okba Ibn Nafaa, an al Qaeda-tied group, have often attacked police, army and local officials.

Link

Africa North

Tunisia Says al-Qaeda Group almost Wiped out after Attacks

2015-07-15

[ALMANAR.LB] Tunisia's interior minister said security forces had almost wiped out an gang linked to al Qaeda terrorist organization during a crackdown launched after two deadly attacks on tourists.

Clashes last week killed leaders, including two veteran Algerian fighters, from the Okba Ibn Nafaa brigade, blamed for an assault on the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March, minister Najem Gharselli told news hounds late on Sunday.

The North African country has come under growing international pressure to show it is in control of Lions of Islam after a gunman killed 38 holidaymakers at a beach hotel in Sousse last month, an attack claimed by the so-called 'Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
group.

"After we killed some of their leaders in (the central region of) Gafsa a few days ago, we have now destroyed 90 percent of Okba Ibn Nafaa," the minister said.

Okba Ibn Nafaa, allied with Al Qaeda's north African wing, was among the most active of hard-line groups that emerged after Tunisia's 2011 "Arab Spring" uprising ousted President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

Authorities say more than 3,000 Tunisians have left the country to fight for ISIL and other gangs on other battlefields. But the minister said the organization still had no significant presence in Tunisia.

"There are no ISIL groups with any structure in Tunisia, but that doesn't mean there are not some members who have allegiances with ISIL," he said.

ISIL have claimed both the Bardo and the Sousse beach resort attacks, though the government blames Okba and remnants of another local group, Ansar al Sharia, operating across the border in Libya.

The minister said 15 people had so far been tossed in the clink
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
in connection with the Sousse attack, and security forces had broken up other sleeper cells planning other assaults.

"We have taken the security measures to better protect tourists and Tunisians, including the deployment of 100,000 police across the country," he said.

Britannia, which lost 30 nationals in the Sousse attack, told its tourists to leave the country last week, saying another attack was highly likely and more work was needed to protect tourists.

Link

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