Tunisian elections in the shadow of terrorism

Ahmed Adel

Tunisian media announced Monday morning (September 2nd) that three terrorists and one Tunisian army officer were killed in an exchange of fire between terrorist elements and Tunisian forces in the central province of Kasserine.

According to Tunisian local radio Mosaique, the operation resulted in the death of Amir, a battalion called ‘Oqba Ben Nafi’, one of the most prominent terrorists in the Maghreb region, known as “Bey El Akrouf”, who holds Algerian nationality and is internationally classified as a dangerous terrorist. He had participated in all terrorist operations in the Tunisian mountains, as well as in bloody operations in Algeria.

A Tunisian radio source confirmed that the second terrorist who was eliminated was Algerian terrorist Tahir Jijili.

According to the Tunisian Radio Mosaic website, Tunisian National Guard units managed to eliminate three terrorists who attempted to infiltrate the Kef Mountains towards the Kasserine Mountains, which came during an exchange of fire as the Tunisian National Guard forces attempted to counter the infiltration of terrorists from the Kef Mountains towards the Kasserine Mountains.

Accident and elections: Reading in indication of timing

The terrorist incident coincided with the start of campaigns for the presidential elections that started today, to continue until the 13th of this month, with the participation of 26 candidates competing for the votes of 7.15 million Tunisians; raising fears that the efforts of terrorists in this period focused on targeting and obstruction of the elections.

Al Qaeda and ISIS in Tunisia

The so-called Uqba bin Nafi group, the Tunisian armed branch of al-Qaeda in the Arab Maghreb, is considered the most dangerous terrorist group to threaten security and stability in Tunisia, where it was behind most of the most important terrorist operations that targeted the country. A terrorist operation took place in Tunisia a few days ago, when three soldiers were killed in an ambush by the group.

The group is a terrorist group formed by the al-Qaeda leader in Morocco, Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, also known as Abdelmalek Droukdel, who is mostly headed by Algerian leaders.

For some time, it has succeeded in reinforcing its ranks with new gunmen of different nationalities, mostly from Algeria, Tunisia and, to a lesser extent, Mauritania and Niger, whose main objective is to destabilize the Tunisian regime and obstruct the emerging democracy in order to realize its dream of establishing a so-called “Islamic Emirate of North Africa”.

The first terrorist attacks were adopted by the Aqbat Bin Nafi battalion in December 2012, when the guard agent Anis Jlassi was killed in the city of Kasserine.

Over the past two years, ISIS has faced a severe blockade of its strongholds in the mountains and suffered successive defeats, after the liquidation of most of its leaders and gunmen on Tunisian territory. However, despite the blows it received, the Uqba Battalion is still desperate to declare its presence and defend its survival, especially in light of an anticipated existential conflict between al-Qaeda and ISIS supporters in the African region.

The Islamic State terrorist organization in Tunisia is known as the “Soldier of the Caliphate”, which first appeared in 2014 in Algeria, when the Central Command split from al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb between Algeria and Tunisia.

In 2015, the group’s real start was to carry out its terrorist plot against the Tunisian state; it claimed responsibility for the slaughter of a security officer in Zaghouan province.

ISIS operatives are present in the mountains of Moghila, Samama, Salloum and the Chaâbani mountains in western Tunisia. They are stationed in the mountains of the provinces of Gafsa, Kasserine and Sidi Bouzid, which border them with Algeria.

This group, which is loyal to the Islamic State terrorist organization, relies on maximizing the use of arms smuggling across the Tunisian-Libyan border, through mountainous and desert routes.

It also targets civilians and locals in these areas, through bloody operations such as slaughter; where the Islamic State «Tunis Branch» committed a number of heinous terrorist operations, most notably, beheading in November 2015, and an armed attack in June 2016 on the Tunisian army and security units.

In February 2018, the United States designated the Caliphate Soldier as a terrorist group.