Tunisian police arrest suspected Libya militant

Tunisian police have arrested a Libyan militant connected to terrorist groups in the southern part of the country.

“The competent units managed, after a security intelligence operation in south of Tunisia, to arrest a Libyan terrorist who entered Tunisian territory, as well as some terrorist elements from neighboring countries,” the Tunisian Ministry of Interior said on Monday.

The arrest comes after a bomb attack targeted an Army vehicle earlier this month and killed two Tunisian soldiers.

According to Tunias’s Army spokesman Mokhtar Ben Nasr, at least two other soldiers were also injured in the attack which took place on June 6 in the area of Doghra of Mount Chaambi.

On June 1, three soldiers were injured in a similar attack in the same area, which is situated southwest of the capital Tunis.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Tunisian officials lay the blame on Salafi terrorist groups.

On May 24, Tunisia’s Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said the country made progress in dismantling terrorist cells.

Tunisian authorities arrested over 200 people, including supporters of the Ansar al-Sharia group on May 19, during clashes that erupted when the group called on its followers to assemble in the capital’s suburb of Ettadhamen.

The Tunisian government recently banned Ansar al-Sharia from holding its annual congress in Kairouan, the capital of Kairouan Governorate, saying the group posed a “threat to public order.”

Tunisia has seen numerous clashes between the authorities and Salafists over the past few months.