Tunisian Border Guard Killed In Shootout With 'Terrorist Group'

A Tunisian border guard was killed on Sunday in a shootout with jihadists on the border with Algeria, state television and the president of a union of border guards said.


"A border guard was killed and three others were wounded in a shootout with a terrorist group in Bouchebka," Wataniya 1 television reported.

Ridha Ennasri, the union president, confirmed to AFP that a border guard was killed in "a terrorist attack" and said that another was wounded.

The killing comes days after a Tunisian policeman was shot dead by two assailants on a motorbike in the coastal resort of Sousse. Authorities have been unable to say whether that killing was carried out by jihadists and an investigation is ongoing.

In June, a jihadist gunman killed 30 Britons and eight other foreign tourists on a beach in Sousse, an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

Tunisia has been under a state of emergency in the wake of that massacre, which followed an attack by gunmen on the Bardo museum in the capital Tunis that killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman.

Extra troops have been posted at tourist sites since the beach killings.

Tunisian authorities have also been waging an offensive against the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigades, claiming the killing of three senior leaders in a security forces raid last month.

Authorities blame the organisation, an al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group that is the country's main extremist group, for the Bardo museum attack on March 18.

Tunisia has since its 2011 revolution faced an upsurge in jihadist violence that has cost the lives of dozens of soldiers and police.