Two soldiers were killed by a landmine in western Tunisia near the Algerian border, a region where the army has been chasing jihadists since 2012, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

"Two soldiers died, one last night and the second early this morning, after they were injured in a landmine explosion in Mount Mghila on Monday," the ministry's spokesman Belhassen Oueslati told AFP.

A woman was killed and a man wounded in western Tunisia late on Saturday after soldiers opened fire on their car fearing they were armed, a defense ministry spokesman told AFP.

The army had earlier received information about a car carrying an "armed group" in the Kasserine region and had dispatched soldiers to find it, the spokesman, Belhassen Oueslati, said.

A suspected jihadist has been shot dead in western Tunisia near the Algerian border, a region where security forces have been hunting militants since 2012, the interior ministry announced Monday.

It said "a terrorist was killed" in an ambush staged by police special forces on Sunday night on Mount Sammama in the Kasserine region.

British police helping the Tunisian authorities investigate the beach massacre that left 30 Britons dead said Wednesday they were linking it to an earlier attack on a Tunis museum.

The Britons were among 38 holidaymakers gunned down at a beach hotel near Sousse on June 26, three months after a shooting at the Bardo Museum in the capital Tunis in March. Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.

A state of emergency imposed in Tunisia after a jihadist gunman killed 38 foreign tourists in June is to be extended for two months, the president's office announced Friday.  

"After consultations with the prime minister and the speaker, the president has decided to extend the state of emergency in force nationwide for two months from August 3," it said in a statement.

The Tunisian parliament adopted a new anti-terror law overnight Friday aimed at beefing up powers to confront a jihadist threat following deadly attacks but which has been slammed by rights groups as draconian.

The law was adopted after three days of debate by 174 members of parliament with ten abstentions and no votes against, according to an AFP tally.

The internationally recognized Libyan government claimed on Friday that Tunisia had foiled a plot to assassinate its acting Interior Minister Moustafa Dabachi, an allegation denied by Tunis.

"There was an attempt to assassinate the interim interior minister in Tunis. We informed the Tunisian authorities and they thwarted it," government spokesman Hatem el-Ouraybi said, adding that a Tunisian had been arrested.

Tunisian forces killed one suspected jihadist and arrested 16 others in a series of operations, the government said Friday, as lawmakers studied tougher anti-terrorism laws following a spate of attacks.

Security forces launched an operation Thursday in Sejnane, in the northern Bizerte region, "against terrorists preparing terrorist acts," said the interior ministry.

Tunisia's parliament approved Thursday imposition of the death penalty for "terrorist" crimes, despite opposition from rights groups and a de facto quarter-century moratorium on executions.

Lawmakers were voting during the second of three days of debate on a bill aimed at beefing up powers to confront a jihadist threat following deadly attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.

Tunisian lawmakers began a three-day debate Wednesday on a new anti-terrorism bill aimed at beefing up powers to confront a jihadist threat following a spate of deadly attacks.

President Beji Caid Essebsi imposed a state of emergency after a student went on a shooting rampage at a beach resort last month, killing 38 foreign tourists, most of them Britons.