Govt raid kills 9 rebels in south

Tunisian forces killed nine militants during a raid in a southern region as part of a crackdown that followed the attack on a Tunis museum that killed 23 people, an Interior Ministry official said on Sunday.

The operations late on Saturday in the Gafsa region came hours before tens of thousands of Tunisian joined world leaders, including French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, in a march of solidarity in Tunis.

"Our forces killed nine terrorists in a large operation in Sidi Aich in Gafsa," Interior Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid later said the nine militants killed in the raid were from the local group Okba Ibn Nafaa, and that one of them was Algerian Lokman Abu Sakhr, suspected of orchestrating the museum attack.

Two gunmen killed 21 foreign tourists and a Tunisian police officer at the Bardo Museum two weeks ago, in one of the worst attacks in the North African country, which had mostly avoided violence since its 2011 uprising against Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. The 23rd victim, a French woman, died on Saturday.

Tourists from Japan, Poland, Spain and Colombia were among those killed in the attack, which the government said was aimed at destroying Tunisia's tourism industry - about 7 percent of its economy.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Bardo attack, although the Tunisian government has said fighters from Okba Ibn Nafaa were involved.

The Bardo attack underscored how Islamist militants' loyalties are blurring as they seek a new North African front, especially in Libya, where political chaos and factional fighting have allowed Islamic State to gain an outpost.

On Sunday, thousands of Tunisians took part in the solidarity march along with the foreign dignitaries.

The march went from Bab Saadoun Square to the museum, where a stone tablet was dedicated to the memory of the victims.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi called last week for a huge turnout for the march. The museum was to reopen to the public on Monday. The Bardo's doors were open on Friday to schoolchildren and older students only.

Asked whether she was frightened, 17-year-old German student Lena Bottlender told a reporter: "I was a little, but now that we are here, I can see that things are safe."

Reuters - AFP

(China Daily 03/30/2015 page12)