Police killed two young women in a tense region of Tunisia early Saturday, mistaking them for members of an armed group, the interior ministry and a relative said.

An internal security patrol was stationed by the roadside in Kasserine, in central-western Tunisia, "after a citizen supplied information about an armed group heading for the town," the ministry said in a statement.

Tunisia Thursday condemned the "savage crimes" of the Islamic State (IS) after it beheaded American journalist James Foley, calling the jihadist group a threat to all states in the region.

Tunisian fishermen rescued 75 migrants on Thursday who had been drifting at sea for five days after leaving Libya aboard an inflatable in a bid to reach Italy, survivors told AFP.

The migrants from Bangladesh, Ghana and Nigeria had left the Libyan port of Zwara and were hoping to reach the Italian coast but were caught in a storm and got lost at sea, one of the Bangladeshis said.

Tunisian coastguards on Saturday intercepted 90 African migrants whose makeshift boat heading from Libya for the Italian island of Lampedusa broke down off Zarzis, the Red Crescent said.

"At 0500 GMT the Tunisian coastguard rescued 90 African illegal migrants from a makeshift vessel after it broke down off Zarzis" in southern Tunisia, Red Crescent official Mongi Slim told Agence France Presse.

Tunisia on Friday announced plans to call on army reservists to secure upcoming elections and said it will shut down Internet sites suspected of links to "terrorism".

Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa has authorized finance "to call up army reservists in order to contribute to securing upcoming elections", a government statement said.

Tunisia has asked the United States for a dozen American-made Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters so its forces can "fight terrorism," the country's president said Tuesday.

Since its 2011 revolution, the North African country has seen the rise of a jihadist movement, with some 50 members of the military and police force killed in attacks linked to armed groups.

Up to 10,000 Egyptians fleeing the fighting in Libya are still stranded at the border with Tunisia, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said Monday on a visit to Tunis.

"So far we have evacuated around 2,500... we don't have exact statistics but between 5,000 and 10,000 people" are still waiting to leave, he said at a news conference after meeting Tunisia Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa.

Thousands of Egyptians who have been seeking to flee strife-torn Libya for days were being airlifted home Sunday after Tunisia's initial refusal to let them in sparked clashes at the border.

Buses picked up dozens of them on Saturday afternoon at the Ras Jedir border crossing to take them to Jerba airport, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north, where flights were to evacuate them to Egypt, Agence France-Presse journalists said.

Baby on her shoulder, suitcase in hand, Khadija, a 34-year-old Tunisian, is rushing to escape from the "Libyan nightmare" through the Ras Jedir border crossing to reach her homeland.

With the crossing point open only intermittently because of clashes on the Libyan side, Khadija has to wait all night before being allowed through.

The Philippines urged its thousands of workers in Libya on Saturday to leave the strife-torn nation now while they still can, warning that the remaining exit routes were closing fast.