TUNIS: A Tunisian soldier has been killed and three others were wounded in a mine blast in the restive Kasserine region, the defense ministry said Saturday, in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda-linked extremists.
The mine exploded Friday on Mount Chambi, in Kasserine, where the army has conducted search operations since 2012 to hunt down extremists linked both to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, the ministry said.
The area which borders Algeria — a “closed military zone” since 2014 — is considered to be a bastion of Okba Ibn Nafaa, a local affiliate of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Okba Ibn Nafaa claimed responsibility for the attack, SITE Intelligence Group reported late Friday.
It said an anti-armored improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated targeting Tunisian soldiers but did not specify casualties, the monitoring group said.
The attack which the defense ministry said killed a 26-year-old soldier came days after officials said security forces had shot dead a suspected extremist in the Kef mountains further north.
Since its 2011 revolution, Tunisia has experienced multiple extremist attacks that have killed dozens of members of the security forces and 59 foreign tourists.
The country has been under a state of emergency since November 2015, when a Daesh-claimed suicide bombing in Tunis killed 12 presidential guards.

KHARTOUM: The organizers of the protests that drove Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir from power said they met Saturday with the ruling military council for talks on forming a transitional government.
The protesters had agreed on Wednesday to resume talks with the military after a temporary break. The announcement to set up a joint committee to tackle political disputes was followed by the resignation of three members of the military council, whom the opposition had accused of being too close to Al-Bashir.
The protesters fear the army, dominated by Al-Bashir appointees, will cling to power or select one of its own to succeed him. They also fear Islamists and other factions close to the deposed leader, who is now jailed in the capital, Khartoum, will be granted a role in the transition.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded four months of escalating demonstrations that led the military to remove Al-Bashir from power April 11, is demanding a civilian government. They have proposed that a sovereign council, which would include “limited” army representation, hand over full powers to civilians during a four-year transitional period.
Army leaders have called for a two-year transition during which the generals would retain sovereign power and give only executive authorities to civilians.
The military also agreed on Wednesday to recognize the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, a coalition of opposition groups led by the SPA, as the uprising’s only legitimate representative, in a move widely seen as a victory for the protesters.
The council has met with a wide range of political parties about the transition, including those formerly close to Al-Bashir. Shams Al-Deen Al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the council, said late Friday that it had completed a review of proposals. He did not elaborate.
The opposition has meanwhile vowed to continue protests, centered on a sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum.
The Umma party of former Prime Minister Sadiq Al-Mahdi, a leading opposition figure, said the protesters will not break up the sit-in until there is a full transfer of power to civilians.
The SPA says around 100 people have been killed by security forces since December, when a failing economy and a spike in prices sparked the first protests.

ISTANBUL: Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Saturday to confront opponents inside his own party weeks after he suffered shock election defeats in the capital Ankara and commercial hub Istanbul.
Erdogan and his supporters have up to now blamed the losses on electoral fraud by unspecified groups and launched a string of legal challenges against the results.
“While we’re fighting outside, I have to say, we had people doing us wrong from the inside too,” Erdogan said during a speech at an AK Party retreat, without naming any individuals.
“What is going on in which province, in which district, all that information come to us. We know it all … For the future of this organization, we will call them to account. We’re not going to carry them on our backs.”
The president did not spell out what actions he would take. Authorities have suspended or sacked 150,000 civil servants and military personnel in recent years, accusing many of them of being involved in a failed 2016 military coup.
More than 77,000 people have been jailed pending trial and widespread arrests still regularly happen.
Initial results of the March 31 local election showed the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) won the mayoralty of Ankara and control of Istanbul — which AKP and its Islamist predecessors have dominate for 25 years.
Erdogan said the party would keep up its legal campaign challenging the results and calling for recounts.
“Until the last moment, we will continue our legal struggle. It is certain that there is a scam here. We have to get the case resolved, so that we can find peace,” he said.
“Although we have won the districts, we will question why we lost the big cities,” he added. “We need to focus on what to do and how to evaluate this process, especially in the metropolitan cities.”

DUBAI: Six Yemeni demining experts died in an accident at a warehouse containing landmines in Taiz on Thursday, the King Salman Humanitarian and Aid Relief Center (KSRelief) reported.

The specialists were working on the center’s MASAM project to demine Yemen, which began in June 2018.

The experts were collecting unexploded mines and mine remnants in the warehouse when the explosion happened.

A driver from the facility received serious injuries and the storeroom was demolished.

KSRelief will release more information on the incident once it becomes available.

Echoing other organizations working in the war troubled Yemen, the center called on the UN and other international organs to have a firm stand against the Houthi violations in Yemen.

The militants’ mines killed thousands of Yemenis. UN children’s agency reported a Houthi bomb killing two children in Sanaa earlier in April.

JERUSALEM: Israel will release two prisoners in return for the remains of an Israeli soldier missing since 1982 which were recovered by Russian special forces in Syria, an Israeli official said.
Russia this month handed over the remains and personal effects of Zachary Baumel, who was 21 when he was declared missing in action along with two other soldiers in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.
“Israel has decided to release two prisoners as a goodwill gesture,” the Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Saturday.
The official did not provide details about the identity of the prisoners and said that the decision to release them was made after Baumel’s remains were recovered.
The official was responding to reports by Israeli media that said the prisoners were Syrian. There was no immediate comment from Syrian or Russian authorities.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.