Tunisian Police Raid Two Suspected Terror Hideouts

Posted by African Examiner African News, North Africa Thursday, May 12th, 2016

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Police raids on suspected terrorist hideouts in Tunisia left four officers and at least two suspects dead Wednesday.

Police stormed a terror cell north of Tunis where a number of militants from across the country had gathered to plan what the police called “synchronized attacks.”

Two militants were killed and 16 were arrested. Security forces gave little detail on the raid or the terror plot but said they had captured a number of rifles, grenades and other weapons.

Forces carried out a separate raid in Tataouine in southern Tunisia. Four policemen were killed when one of the militants set off an explosives belt.

Tunisia was the first North African country to overthrow a dictator in the so-called Arab Spring of 2011, but extremism and terrorism still shake its fragile democracy.

Islamic State attacks on a Tunisian beach resort and art museum last year killed some 60 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Militants, including some who crossed the border from Libya, fought with security forces in southeastern Tunisia in March, leaving seven civilians dead along with a number of officers and militants.

VOA