Three Suspected Militants Killed in Tunisia Near Algerian Border

Tunisian police stand guard near a house in Raoued, a northern suburb of the capital Tunis, February 4, 2014.- Reuters
Tunisian police stand guard near a house in Raoued, a northern suburb of the capital Tunis, February 4, 2014.- Reuters
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Three Suspected Militants Killed in Tunisia Near Algerian Border

Tunisian police stand guard near a house in Raoued, a northern suburb of the capital Tunis, February 4, 2014.- Reuters
Tunisian police stand guard near a house in Raoued, a northern suburb of the capital Tunis, February 4, 2014.- Reuters

Three suspected militants, including an Asian woman and local leader in ISIS, were killed in Tunisian mountains near the Algerian border in two police operations, a security official said on Thursday.

Six years ago an ISIS militant shot dead 39 foreigners on a beach in Sousse, triggering an exodus of tourists and severely damaging Tunisia's economy.

Since then Tunisia has grown more effective in preventing and responding to attacks, but sleeper cells still pose a real threat, especially with the return of militants from Syria, Iraq and Libya.

"Our forces killed a terrorist, as his Asian wife blew herself up, killing also her baby in Saloum mountain," said Colonel Houssem Jbebli, an official in National Guard.

He added that Hamdi Dhouib, a local leader in Jund El Khilafah, an affiliate branch of ISIS was also killed in an ambush in Mghila mountains.

The mountainous Mghila and Saloum area, near the impoverished city of Kasserine, is home to an Islamist militant group that the Tunisian army has been fighting for years.



Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
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Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)

A Syrian doctor who had practiced in Germany was sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Monday for crimes against humanity and war crimes after he was found guilty of torturing dissidents in Syria.

The 40-year-old, identified only as Alaa M. in accordance with German privacy laws, was found guilty of killing two people and torturing another eight during his time working in Syria as a doctor at a military hospital and detention center in Homs in 2011 and 2012.

The court said his crimes were part of a systematic attack against people protesting against then-President Bashar al-Assad that precipitated the country's civil war.

Assad was toppled in December. His government denied it tortured prisoners.

Alaa M. arrived in Germany in 2015, after fleeing to Germany among a large influx of Syrian refugees, and became one of roughly 10,000 Syrian medics who helped ease acute staff shortages in the country's healthcare system.

He was arrested in June 2020, and was handed a life sentence without parole, the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt said in a statement.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty, saying he was the target of a conspiracy.

German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.

They have targeted several former Syrian officials in similar cases in recent years.

The plaintiffs were supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR lawyer Patrick Kroker called Monday's ruling "a further step towards a comprehensive reckoning with Assad's crimes".

Judges found that the doctor caused "considerable physical suffering" as a result of the torture inflicted on his victims, which included serious beatings, mistreating wounds and inflicting serious injury to the genitals of two prisoners, one of whom was a teenage boy.

Two patients died after he gave them lethal medication, the court statement said.

Monday's ruling can be appealed.