Tunisia reveals identity of al-Qaeda leader killed in Kasserine province

The Tunisian Interior Ministry announced on Monday that the "terrorist" who was killed on Sunday is Algerian and is considered one of the "most dangerous and bloodiest leaders" in al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.

The Tunisian Defense Ministry confirmed on Sunday that a leader of al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb was killed and another wounded during an anti-terrorism operation in the center of the west of the country.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement on Sunday night that the leader, who was killed in the area of ​​"Seif" in the province of Kasserine (west-west) is "Algerian Murad bin Hamadi Chaib known as Ouf Abu al-Muhajir, brother of the terrorist Lukman Abu Sakhr, who was eliminated in 2015."

"This terrorist is one of the most dangerous and bloodiest leaders", and has participated in many attacks targeting military and security in the country between 2013 and 2016, and 2018 and 2019.

Tunisian authorities have previously said that Luqman Abu Sakher is the leader of the al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb's Aqba Bin Nafi battalion.He was killed on March 28, 2015, along with eight other members of the battalion holed up in the mountains of western Tunisia on the border with Algeria, in an ambush. The police set them up in a mountainous area of ​​Gafsa (southwest).

"A terrorist leader of the Uqba ibn Nafi group was killed during an anti-terrorism operation by military forces and the National Guard in the mountainous region of Kasserine" near the Algerian border, Defense Ministry spokesman Mohamed Zekri told AFP on Sunday.

He added that another "terrorist" was wounded during the ongoing operation in the area, where extremist groups are active, and the group Oqba bin Nafi is a local branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The state of emergency remains in force from 2015 to the end of this year, and calls on the country's authorities to be vigilant.

The mountainous border region of Kasserine remains a bastion of jihadist groups, including the Islamic State's Caliphate, and Tunisian security forces regularly carry out sweeps.