Tunis | The jihadist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the death of four soldiers in early February during an anti-terrorist operation in a mountainous area in central Tunisia, the US agency SITE, which specializes in monitoring jihadist groups, said Thursday evening.
IS fighters “killed four members of the Tunisian army in explosions near Mount Mghila and also killed an army spy in a separate operation in the Mount Selloum area,” according to an article published by ISIS propaganda body Al-Naba reported SITE.
According to Al-Naba, three explosive devices were activated when soldiers passed by on a road they were examining on foot on February 3, looking in particular for bombs of this type.
Defense ministry spokesman Mohamed Zekri told AFP that day that “four soldiers, who were part of a unit tasked with carrying out a search operation at Mount Mghila in search of terrorist elements, (had) been victims of the explosion of an artisanal mine ”.
According to him, this region is known to host armed jihadist groups.
This incident “will not prevent us from continuing our efforts to fight and defeat terrorism,” Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi reacted.
In addition, the jihadist group claimed via Al-Naba the death of a man presented as a “Tunisian army spy” and identified as Oqba al-Dhibi.
The man was “lured into the region of Mount Selloum”, near Kasserine (center-west) by jihadists and was executed by beheading on December 20.
The Tunisian authorities announced the death that day.
“The decapitated body of a young man was found in the region of Al-Soltanya, in the governorate of Kasserine, and it is likely that a terrorist group is behind the attack,” Mohsen told AFP Dali, deputy prosecutor general at the Tunis court of first instance.
“The body belonged to a 20-year-old man named Oqba al-Dhibi,” he added.
According to local radio stations, he was a shepherd and grazed his sheep during the attack.
Tunisia has been confronted since its revolution in 2011 with a boom in the jihadist movement, responsible for the deaths of several dozen soldiers and police, but also civilians and foreign tourists.