Tunisia border guard wounded in ‘terrorist’ ambush

A border guard was injured late Wednesday in an ambush by more than a dozen “terrorists” in the Kasserine region near Tunisia’s frontier with Algeria, the interior ministry in Tunis said.

“A group composed of around 15 terrorists ambushed a border guard vehicle and opened fire near Feriana,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Heavy fire erupted, setting the vehicle alight,” the ministry said, adding that one guard had been injured and was taken to the regional hospital in Kasserine.

The ministry said the attackers “fled towards Mount Chaambi” and that army units had been called in to carry out security operations in the area.

Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, has suffered from a wave of militant violence since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Kasserine and Mount Chaambi have become the North African nation’s prime militant hideouts.

A raid on the Libyan frontier town of Ben Guerdane, blamed on ISIS, left 20 people dead earlier this month.

ISIS also claimed brazen attacks last year on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis and a beach resort, as well as a November suicide bombing in the capital that killed 59 tourists and 12 presidential guards.

Last week the government extended by three months a state of emergency imposed following jihadist attacks, while the United States on Friday announced a $24.9-million (22-million-euro) project to install an electronic security surveillance system on Tunisia’s border with strife-torn Libya.