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Tunisia Considers Crackdown On Radical Preachers

It remains to be seen whether the Tunisian government’s crackdown on terrorists, including targeting "radical" preachers, will reduce violence in the country, writes Mischa Benoit-Lavelle from Tunisia.

A man from the Salafist faction holds up a banner that reads "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God", on the second anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution at Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis January 14, 2013. Thousands of Tunisians protested against the Islamist-led government on Monday, exactly two years after the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in a popular revolt that inspired others across the Arab world. In the same street, about 2,000 supporters of the Islamic-led
A man from the Salafist faction holds up a banner that reads, "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God," on the second anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution at Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis, Jan. 14, 2013. — REUTERS/Anis Mili

TABARKA, Tunisia — With 16 soldiers and national guard agents injured while hunting for an extremist group in Tunisia's mountainous border area, the country is witnessing its most dangerous confrontation with Islamist violence to date.

Underscoring the seriousness of the threat, the interior minister confirmed on May 8 that the group being pursued was affiliated with the Oqba Ibnou Nafaa Militia, part of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and that among its two dozen or so fighters were some who had returned from the Islamist insurgency in Mali.

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