Tunisia militants ambush security forces

Tunisia’s interior ministry said on Sunday that a band of Islamist militants attacked security forces, killing four people, in an ambush near the border with Algeria.

The ministry statement said the militants shot at a vehicle driving along a road in the northwest of the country, killing a prison official, a civilian and wounding two others.

The group then attacked a patrol sent to investigate the attack, killing two members of the National Guard and wounding two others.

The Islamist militants were disguised as security officials and had stolen weapons and a vehicle, according to the state news agency TAP.

The report did not name any group as being responsible for the attack.

One of the Arab world’s most secular countries, Tunisia has progressed in its transition to democracy after the revolt, with a new constitution praised for its modernity and elections scheduled for this year.

But Islamist militant violence is one of the main challenges for the new caretaker government. Earlier this month, police killed seven militants armed with suicide bomb vests and explosives in a raid just north of the capital.

(With Reuters and the Associated Press)