Tunisia Foils Attacks on Tourist, Industrial Sites

Tunisian authorities have arrested suspected Islamist militants from Libya and Tunisia who were allegedly plotting attacks against tourist and industrial sites, Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou said Sunday.

The suspects had infiltrated Tunisia from Libya "and their targets were tourism and industrial zones," the minister told local radio stations.

"They were arrested, and mines, explosive belts and explosives were seized," Ben Jeddou said.

An interior ministry spokesman said 16 suspects were arrested in the southern town of Ben Guerdane near the porous border with Libya, with three of them detained early on Sunday.

Since late 2012, security forces have been battling dozens of militants hiding out in the remote Mount Chaambi region, near the Algerian border, where eight soldiers were killed in an ambush last July.

Authorities say the militants are linked to al-Qaida.

But jihadists have not claimed the attacks that have rocked Tunisia since the 2011 uprising, including two foiled suicide bombings in October targeting tourist sites.

Last year, more than 20 security personnel were killed in what the government says were "terrorism-related incidents." Two opposition politicians were also assassinated in separate attacks that plunged the country into crisis.

Last month, Tunis designated Mount Chaambi and neighboring mountain districts a closed military zone, and warned of the growing threat posed by "terrorist organizations" based there.

Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa insisted Sunday that the authorities are capable of "undermining the plans" of armed groups, but warned that battling jihadists would lead to as "heavy human losses as anywhere else in the world."

Tunisia has also been wary of the growing influence of Islamists in neighboring Libya, and fears that lawlessness there could spill across the border.