Return from the ashes: Specter of terrorism knocks at doors of Tunisia again

Aya Ezz

The Tunisian Ministry of Interior announced on Friday, December 19, that the interests of the National Unit for Research into Crimes of Terrorism and Organized Crimes Afflicting the Safety of Tunisia, and in coordination with the Central Department for Combating Terrorism of the General Department of the Specialized Services for National Security, managed, after a qualitative and pre-emptive operation, to uncover an operational terrorist element who had pledged allegiance to ISIS was planning to carry out a specific operation in Tunisia.

The Tunisian Ministry of Interior said that after the terrorist element was arrested and investigated, he admitted that he had received in-depth lessons in how to manufacture explosives and toxic materials through remote communication technology, and that he had begun carrying out preparatory work to implement an imminent qualitative operation as a lone wolf.

On June 17, 2019, ISIS broadcast a video of a group of militants urging more attacks in Tunisia and confirming their pledge of allegiance to the terrorist organization’s late leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The video, which was posted on the organization’s accounts on the Telegram application, was uploaded by the media office of ISIS in Tunisia, and video tapes of militants are rarely circulated in Tunisia.

The video showed a group of masked gunmen carrying machine guns in an unknown area.

Most prominent terrorist cells

The so-called Soldiers of the Caliphate organization is one of the most hideous terrorist organizations in Tunisia, and that group first appeared in 2014 in Algeria after it split from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and pledged allegiance to ISIS and Baghdadi. It was active in the border mountain areas between Algeria and Tunisia.

According to France 24, the group began carrying out its operations in Tunisia in 2015 when it adopted the process of slaughtering a security officer in Zaghouan governorate while he was returning to his home. In recent years this group succeeded in attracting a number of jihadist elements from Tunisia and Algeria, relying on smuggling weapons from Libya.

On February 27, 2018, the US State Department warned that it would take punitive measures against the groups affiliated with ISIS stationed outside Syria and Iraq and anyone who deals with them, including the Soldiers of Caliphate terrorist brigade, which is fortified in the mountains in Tunisia.

The United States classified the Soldiers of Caliphate among the terrorist groups pledging allegiance to ISIS, along with the groups ISIS Egypt, ISIS Philippines, ISIS Bangladesh, ISIS Somalia and ISIS West Africa.

Among the three terrorist operations carried out by the organization in 2015, the Tunisian government considers the Uqba Bin Nafi Brigade, which adopted the ideology of al-Qaeda but pledged allegiance to ISIS, as responsible for the bloody terrorist attack that targeted the Bardo Museum on March 18 of the same year, in which 22 people were killed.

The Uqba Bin Nafi Brigade is one of the most prominent groups affiliated with the organization in Tunisia. It is an armed jihadist group that has been fortified since the end of 2012 in Jabal Al-Chaanbi from the state of Kasserine (center-west) on the border between Tunisia and Algeria. According to the Tunisian authorities, this group is named after the Muslim leader who conquered Tunisia and it is linked to AQIM. It planned to establish the first Islamist emirate in North Africa.

In September 2014, the Uqba bin Nafi Brigade announced allegiance to ISIS and called it to move outside Syria and Iraq, saying in a statement, “The Mujahideen brothers in the Uqba Bin Nafi Brigade strongly support ISIS, and they call on it to advance, transcend borders and break the thrones of tyrants everywhere.”

Tunisia is largest source of terrorism

In July 2015, experts at the United Nations estimated that more than 5,500 Tunisians joined jihadist organizations, distributed as follows: 4,000 Tunisians in Syria, between 1,000 and 1,500 in Libya, 200 in Iraq, 60 in Mali and 50 in Yemen, ranging in age from 18 and 35 years old.

In December 2017, a German research center conducted a study on the number of foreign fighters within ISIS, and the Tunisian state ranked sixth in the number of 12,800 terrorists since the outbreak of the war in Syria, and about 5,000 of them have been killed, while the number of fighters has reached 1,320 terrorists.

The study revealed that the number of Tunisian women participating in the ranks of ISIS in Syria reached 66 women.