2006–2007 Tunisia clashes

On 23 December 2006 and 3 January 2007, Tunisian security forces engaged in clashes with members of a group with connections to the Islamist terror group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in the towns of Soliman and Hammam-Lif south of the capital Tunis, killing more than a dozen people.[1][2]

Clashes

On 23 December, two Islamists were killed and two arrested in a shootout with police in the town of Hammam-Lif south of Tunis.[3]

On 3 January, at least two members of Tunisian security forces and twelve Islamists were killed, and fifteen arrested in a clash in a forested area near Soliman.[3][4]

Among those killed was the leader of the group, Lassaad Sassi, a former Tunisian policeman who had spent time in Afghanistan and headed a terror network based in Milan, Italy. Sassi's group had reportedly established training camps in the mountains in Djebel Ressas and Boukornine south of the Tunisian capital.[5]

According to French daily Le Parisien at least 60 people were killed in the clashes.[1] It was later revealed that the Islamists had been in possession of blueprints of foreign embassies as possible targets.[3][4] The attacks were the most serious by Islamists in Tunisia since the Ghriba synagogue bombing in 2002.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Terror in the Maghreb". 14 February 2007.[dead link‍]
  2. ^ "Profile: Al-Qaeda in North Africa". BBC News. 17 January 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Smith, Craig S. (14 January 2007). "Tunisia Says Suspects in Gun Battle Had Blueprints of Embassies". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b "Archives". Los Angeles Times. 13 January 2007.
  5. ^ Botha, Anneli (June 2008). "Chapter 4: Terrorism in Tunisia". Institute for Security Studies. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)