Cairo: Some 3,000 to 3,100 Tunisians, with suspected links to radical groups in war-ravaged Syria, have returned to the homeland, a Tunisian security official has said.
Spokesman for the Tunisian Interior Ministry Brig. Khalifa Al Chibani added in remarks aired Friday that the returnees are under authorities’ strict oversight.
“The Interior Ministry is monitoring the returnees. They include some who are in prison; others are placed under house arrest or surveillance,” Al Chibani told private Tunisian television Nessma.
He added that none of the returnees has been involved in any terrorist act in the country.
Al Chibani did not give an estimate about the overall numbers of Tunisians, who have left the country and joined hardline groups, mainly Daesh. Hundreds of Tunisians are believed to have fought in ranks of different extremists groups in regional zones of conflicts, including neighbouring Libya and Syria.
“The Daeshi project has fallen, especially as its backbone has been struck in Tunisia,” he said.
In 2015, Tunisia saw three major deadly attacks claimed by Daesh. In March 21 tourists and a policeman were killed in an attack on the Bardot Museum in the capital Tunis. In June that year, 38 tourists, mostly Britons, were killed in an attack in a hotel in the Mediterranean Sea city of Sousse.
In November, 12 presidential guards were killed in an explosion in the capital, prompting Tunisia to declare a state of emergency.
The assaults have taken their toll on tourism, a main source of income for Tunisia.
In recent months, authorities in the North African country have mounted a security swoop on suspected militants and a deradicalization drive.
The crackdown has intensified since late 2016 after a young Tunisian linked to Daesh drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people.
