Tunisian army reinforces security around oil and gas fields - The Tunisian army has reinforced security around the oil and gas fields in the south of the country at the border with Libya and Algeria, for fear of possible terrorist attacks, reliable sources said on Tuesday.
The Tunisian News Agency (TAP) said that the special unit was mobilized around the “important sites in the Tunisian Sahara zone to prevent any terrorist act that might target the oil and gas fields particularly those located at the Algerian border".
Tunisia shares with Algeria a long border of more than 900 km and about 350 km with Libya.
These measures are being taken at a time when clashes have broken out in northern Mali between African military contingents backed by the French army and Islamist extremists and the terrorist attack in mid-January against the gas complex of In Amenas in the south-east of Algeria, TAP says.
The Tunisian Interior minister, Ali Larayedh, in December announced the dismantling in the north-east of the country, near the Algerian border, two training camps linked to Al Qaida in Islamic Maghreb (AQMI).
On 17 February a cache of arms was discovered in the southern city of Médenine.
Pana 30/01/2013