Tunisia – Soldiers Arrested In Terror Plot Against US Military Officers
July 6, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
Tunisian authorities have reportedly arrested nine soldiers for allegedly planning attacks on visiting American military officers.
The arrests were made under the Tunisian anti-terrorism law, lawyers said.
The detainees, two of whom are officers in the Tunisian Air Force, planned to assassinate American military officers who visit the country periodically for military training and joint exercises with the Tunisian army, the German Deutsche Press Agency (DPA) reported.
Dr. Jack Kalpakian, a political expert at Morocco’s Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, said he was not surprised to hear news of the terror sweep.
“Tunisia’s government has followed a very secularist policy and has not been very sympathetic towards any kind of political religious expression,” he told The Media Line.
“While in other countries in North Africa expressions of Islamism are tolerated to some extent, Tunisia represses these voices,” he said.
Lawyer Samir Bin ‘Amar told DPA that a court charged the nine detainees with incitement to carry out terror attacks, attempting to acquire weapons and explosives for a terror organization and using Tunisian soil to recruit people for a terror organization.
