{"id":31415,"date":"2016-12-27T22:54:04","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T22:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/fears-mount-in-tunisia-as-jihadists-from-foreign\/"},"modified":"2016-12-27T22:53:43","modified_gmt":"2016-12-27T22:53:43","slug":"fears-mount-in-tunisia-as-jihadists-from-foreign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/fears-mount-in-tunisia-as-jihadists-from-foreign\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears mount in Tunisia as jihadists from foreign battlefields return home"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Fears are mounting in Tunisia that the return of jihadists from foreign battlefields could destabilise a country already reeling from a wave of attacks since its 2011 revolution.}<\/p>\n

Concern has increased after a Tunisian was identified as the suspected attacker who mowed down 11 people with a hijacked truck at a Berlin Christmas market last week and also killed the driver.<\/p>\n

The rampage was claimed by Islamic State in a video showing Anis Amri pledging allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.<\/p>\n

Days later Tunisia said it had arrested Amri\u2019s nephew and two others it said were linked to the Berlin attack suspect but not to the assault itself.<\/p>\n

Tunisia has seen an emergence of extremism since the 2011 revolution that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as well as a wave of jihadist attacks on tourists and security forces.<\/p>\n

EXTRIMIST GROUPS<\/p>\n

The United Nations estimates that more than 5,500 Tunisians are fighting alongside extremist groups, including in Syria and Iraq and Libya.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue of returning jihadists is acute because the noose is being tightened around IS in Syria, Iraq and Libya,\u201d said political analyst Hamza Meddeb.<\/p>\n

He was referring to ground being lost by IS fighters in Syria and Iraq under an onslaught by a US-led coalition and the fall of their Libyan bastion Sirte.<\/p>\n

These setbacks have sparked concern that tens of thousands of jihadists could head back to their home countries, including to Tunisia.<\/p>\n

Last week interior minister Hedi Majdoub told parliament 800 jihadists had returned, saying however that the authorities have them on their radar.<\/p>\n

His words failed to appease politicians, security forces and citizens who over the past few days have publicly voiced their fears and warned against allowing them back in.<\/p>\n

\"Tunisian<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Fears are mounting in Tunisia that the return of jihadists from foreign battlefields could destabilise a country already reeling from a wave of attacks since its 2011 revolution.} Concern has increased after a Tunisian was identified as the suspected attacker who mowed down 11 people with a hijacked truck at a Berlin Christmas market last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31415"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31415"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}