ISIS Sleeper Cells Perk Head in Tunisia Amidst Govt Crackdown

Published December 3rd, 2018 - 12:41 GMT
Tunisian security forces in Kasserine. (AFP /Mohamed Khalil)
Tunisian security forces in Kasserine. (AFP /Mohamed Khalil)

ISIS terrorist organization claimed Sunday its responsibility for the terrorist attack that occurred earlier this week in Kasserine governorate, 200 km south of the capital.

Akher Khabar Online website quoted ISIS' Amaq news agency as saying that a number of armed ISIS terrorists attacked a security patrol in central Kasserine’s al-Manar district.

On Thursday night, the security patrol came under fire from two unknown people who tried to approach it before fleeing on a motorcycle, Agence Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported.

A citizen was wounded and taken to the regional hospital of Kasserine for treatment, while the members of the security patrol were unharmed.

Last week, the Interior Ministry announced the dismantling of four sleeper cells active in a number of governorates around the country planning to carry out a series of terrorist attacks on vital targets in the country.

The sleeper cells coordinated with a number of terrorist leaders taking refuge in the Tunisian mountains, it said.

In the same context, the security services uncovered a laboratory for the development of explosives and toxic gases, along with other materials that would have been used to develop the planned terrorist attacks. Authorities have ordered the seizure of the weapons and materials.

Tunisian security units were last under attack on October 29 when Mona Guebla detonated a bomb near police vehicles in central Tunis on the busy upmarket Avenue Habib Bourguiba, killing herself and wounding 26 people, mostly police officers.

Investigators found that the female suicide attacker had pledged allegiance to ISIS and used online channels to contact Tunisian terrorist leaders.

Guebla used “secret communication channels” to make contact with “terrorist leaders inside and outside the country," announced Tunisia’s Interior Minister Hichem Fourati. He also indicated that she received online instructions on bomb-making from “terrorist elements” based in the country.

This article has been adapted from its original source.

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