TUNIS (Reuters) – An improvised explosive device killed four Tunisian soldiers patrolling in a mountain region near the Algerian border, Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed Zekri said on Wednesday.
The mountainous Moghila area, near the impoverished city of Kasserine, is home to an Islamist militant group that the Tunisian army has been fighting for years.
Tunisia faces a small but persistent militant threat, foreign diplomats focused on security say.
As well as jihadist cells holed up in remote mountain regions, who have not made successful forays beyond their strongholds in recent years, there is also a threat from militants radicalised online.
Last year militants tried to attack the U.S. embassy in Tunis, killing a policeman at a security point with a suicide vest, and months later stabbed two security officers in a knife attack in the city of Sousse.
In October, a young Tunisian migrant arrived in France and immediately killed three people in a church.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Jon Boyle and Giles Elgood)
