Two Tunisian Soldiers Wounded In Clashes with Armed Militants

Tunisian soldiers in Tunis - EPA
Tunisian soldiers in Tunis - EPA
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Two Tunisian Soldiers Wounded In Clashes with Armed Militants

Tunisian soldiers in Tunis - EPA
Tunisian soldiers in Tunis - EPA

Two Tunisian soldiers were wounded on Friday in an exchange of fire with suspected extremists during a military operation in a mountainous region of the south, the defense ministry said.

The shootout happened at Mount Salloum near the town of Kasserine close to the border with Algeria, where militants operate, local media reported.

"There was an exchange of fire between soldiers and a group of militants in the Kasserine area," defense ministry spokesman Mohamed Zekri told AFP.

"There were wounded among the terrorists who fled," he said, adding that two soldiers were slightly wounded.

The most recent similar clash was in March when suspected extremists opened fire on a national guard barracks in the city of Kairouan, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) east of Kasserine.

After the 2011 revolution, Tunisia saw a boom in militant groups which launched attacks that killed dozens of tourists -- notably at the seaside resort of Sousse and at the Bardo National Museum in the capital -- as well as security personnel.

In March 2016, an assault on security positions in Ben Guerdane near the border with Libya killed 13 members of the security forces and seven civilians.

At least 55 militants were also killed and dozens arrested.

Authorities said they have made significant progress in the fight against "terrorism", with no attack on that scale having taken place since.



US Aid Cuts Force UNICEF to Scale Back Lebanon Nutrition Programs

A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
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US Aid Cuts Force UNICEF to Scale Back Lebanon Nutrition Programs

A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

US aid cuts have forced the UN children's agency UNICEF to suspend or scale back many programs in Lebanon, with more than half of children under the age of two experiencing severe food poverty in the country's east, an official said on Friday.

"We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programs and that includes nutrition programs," UNICEF's deputy representative in Lebanon, Ettie Higgins, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Beirut.