Tunisia dismantles cell recruiting women to marry militants
The authorities have stepped up arrests since a November 24 bomb attack on a bus in Tunis
Tourists are evacuated by special forces from the site of an attack by gunmen at Tunis' famed Bardo Museum. PHOTO: AFP
TUNIS:
Tunisia said on Monday it has dismantled a cell in the northern region of Bizerte recruiting women to marry extremists fighting abroad and has made four arrests.
The interior ministry said in a statement that anti-terrorist units led the operation to bust the "takfiri" radical Sunni Muslim network, without saying when the arrests took place.
70 Tunisia hotels closed since extremists attacks
The suspects had been "recruiting young people, especially girls, to send them to conflict zones for marriage to terrorist elements there", it said.
Tunisian authorities have stepped up arrests since a November 24 bomb attack on a bus in Tunis claimed by the Islamic State extremist group killed 12 presidential guards.
Tunisia arrests 7 women over Islamic State propaganda
An estimated 6,000 Tunisians have travelled to Syria, Iraq and Libya to join extremist organisations. Tunisia's minister for women's affairs, Samira Merai, has said that number includes around 700 women.
Tunisia said on Monday it has dismantled a cell in the northern region of Bizerte recruiting women to marry extremists fighting abroad and has made four arrests.
The interior ministry said in a statement that anti-terrorist units led the operation to bust the "takfiri" radical Sunni Muslim network, without saying when the arrests took place.
70 Tunisia hotels closed since extremists attacks
The suspects had been "recruiting young people, especially girls, to send them to conflict zones for marriage to terrorist elements there", it said.
Tunisian authorities have stepped up arrests since a November 24 bomb attack on a bus in Tunis claimed by the Islamic State extremist group killed 12 presidential guards.
Tunisia arrests 7 women over Islamic State propaganda
An estimated 6,000 Tunisians have travelled to Syria, Iraq and Libya to join extremist organisations. Tunisia's minister for women's affairs, Samira Merai, has said that number includes around 700 women.