Tunisia thwarts alleged terrorist attack targeting tourist areas

Gulf Today Report

Tunisia's interior ministry said Friday it had foiled a "terrorist" attack, with the arrest of a woman returning from Syria who was planning a suicide bombing at a tourist resort.

It added that the woman, who was planning attacks with an explosive belt, was imprisoned.

The 22-year-old Tunisian was arrested at Tunis airport on January 10, the ministry said in a statement.

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The ministry said the woman returned to Tunisia from Syria via Turkey on Jan. 10 after spending a year of training in Syria, where she planned the attack.

She had travelled to Turkey in 2020, then last year reached Syria, where unspecified extremist groups trained her for a suicide bombing, it said.

Tunisian authorities have also arrested another "terrorist" who was planning to provide her with an explosive belt, it added.

Tunisian security forces have thwarted most militant plots in recent years and they have become more efficient at responding to those attacks that do occur, Western diplomats say.

In November police shot and wounded an extremist who sought to attack them with a knife and cleaver in the capital.

The last major attacks in Tunisia took place in 2015 when militants killed scores of people in two separate assaults at a museum in Tunis and a beach resort in Sousse.