Female extremist blows up herself and her baby in Tunisia border region

An Asian woman blew up herself and her baby in the border region between Algeria and Tunisia last night. The Tunisian authorities report this. The woman is said to be an IS extremist and her husband, who was killed by Tunisian forces prior to the suicide attack. A young girl, presumably the daughter of the two, survived the suicide attack.

“Our troops have killed several terrorists,” the Tunisian ministry official said last night. After her husband was killed, the wo man blew herself up with a bomb belt.

In her arms, she carried a young baby, who died in the attack. There was also a young girl with the couple. She was injured but survived the attack. She has been taken into care.

According to Tunisian authorities, this was the first time they had found a woman and children among the militants in the border area.

In addition to the man allegedly identified as an IS leader, two other extremists were also killed last night. One of them is believed to be Hamdi Dhouib, the suspected leader of the Algerian extremist group Jund al-Khilafah.

Sousse attack

The mountainous area at Mghila and Saloum, near the city of Kasserine, has been home to Islamic militants, a group against which the Tunisian army has been fighting for a long time.

Since the attacks six years ago in which an IS militant shot 39 people on the beach in Sousse, Tunisia, the fight against terrorism has intensified in the country. Since then, Tunisia has become more effective at preventing terrorist attacks.

However, so-called ‘sleeping cells’ are still active in Algeria’s border areas, where many are returning jihadists from Syria, Iraq, and Libya, among others, are camped out. Previously it was thought that only men stayed here.