Tunisian forces kill six militants ahead of election

Tunisian security forces yesterday killed six people, including five women, after a standoff with an Islamist militant group on the outskirts of Tunis ahead of tomorrow’s parliamentary election, authorities said.

The raid on the house in Oued Ellil, west of Tunis, was the latest operation in Tunisia's crackdown on Islamist militants authorities say threaten the country's transition to democracy following the 2011 fall of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

Militants had been holed up in a house since Thursday after clashes in which a police officer was killed when troops surrounded the building, according to security officials.

Heavy gunfire erupted among the low-rise buildings when troops stormed in, killing one man and five women yesterday. Officials said two children were rescued from the house.

“Our special forces have killed six people from this terrorist group that included five women, who also exchanged fire with our forces,” interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said by telephone.

Linked groups

Details about the raid and what the authorities had suspected the group of doing were still unclear, though officials said the militants were linked to others arrested earlier in the week. Another man and one other woman were arrested at the house during the raid.

Mr Aroui said information showed the women had been planning to travel through neighbouring Libya and then to Syria, where Islamist militants including Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliates are fighting.

Tunisia has long been a source of jihadis in foreign conflicts, from the Afghan wars against the Soviets through to the Iraq war after the 2003 US invasion. Tunisia has struggled to subdue hardline Islamists and jihadis opposed to the transition to democracy following the revolt against Ben Ali, and the military has cracked down on militants in the run-up to tomorrow's election.

Security and economic advances are major concerns for Tunisians voters, who hope the vote will consolidate democracy in the country after a year of political disputes that almost scuttled the transition process.

Since the 2011 revolt, Tunisia has approved a new constitution and reached a compromise among rival groups, unlike Libya and Egypt where Arab Spring uprisings brought about changes of government but also deeper, often violent polarisation.

‘Jasmine Revolution’

But Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution” also opened the way for hardline Islamist and ultraconservative groups to ascend after years of jail, exile and repression under Ben Ali.

Among militant groups operating in Tunisia is Ansar al-Sharia, which the US considers a terrorist organisation and blames for orchestrating the storming of the US embassy in Tunis in 2012. – (Reuters)