Two soldiers killed by landmine in west Tunisia

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 defence 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.

On Monday, the ministry had reported four wounded soldiers after a landmine it said was planted by “terrorists” exploded during an army sweep on Mount Mghila in the Kasserine region.

Mount Mghila is located next to the main jihadist hideout of Mount Chaambi.

Tunisia has since its 2011 revolution faced an upsurge in jihadist violence that has cost the lives of several dozen soldiers and police, with several attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda’s North African branch.

But the bloodiest attacks, claimed by the Islamic State group (IS), killed a total of 59 foreign tourists, targeting the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March and a seaside resort near Sousse in June.