Soliman shooting

Last updated
Soliman shooting
Part of Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
Tunisia in its region.svg
Date3 January 2007
Location
Near Soliman
Result Tunisian government victory
Belligerents
Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia Flag of Jihad.svg GSPC
Commanders and leaders
Lassaad Sassi
Units involved
Tunisian police forces ~ 40 men of Assad ibn al-Furat's army, related to the GSPC
Casualties and losses
2 death

12 deaths

15 prisoners

The Soliman shooting was a shootout that occurred on January 3, 2007 in the Tunisian region of Soliman, south-east of Tunis. The national police forces fought an armed group calling itself "Asad ibn al-Furat's army" which had been initially labeled by the government as "dangerous criminals". A previous shooting involving this same group had taken place on December 23, 2006 placing it in a context of jihadist terrorism and anarchist, insurgent, Islamist militancy.

Contents

Presented at first as a case of great banditry, a phenomenon little known in the country, the international and Tunisian press quickly managed to pinpoint the group's connection with Salafist Islamist terrorism, established in the Maghreb post-9/11. This connection was found especially in the neighboring territory of Algeria, from where the group, composed mainly of Tunisians, infiltrated.

For the French political scientist Vincent Geisser, this emergence of violent international Islamism in Tunisia marked a separation from Tunisian political Islamism, repressed in the 1990s through the Ennahda movement. According to him, this development would be the result of the "strategic systematic repression of the opponents" that would develop on the sidelines of political parties while allowing the government to justify the security strategy in place to the Westerners. [1]

Apart from the Ghriba synagogue bombing in spring 2002, the country had never been targeted by the Islamist movement. But, like other Arab societies, Tunisia is seeing the return of the hijab, the rise of religion, the success of religious programs and the enlistment of several hundred young Tunisians under the banner of Jihad in Iraq. [2] Following the Tunisian revolution, members of the Assad ibn al-Furat's army were liberated, associating themselves with the Tunisian Salafist movement.

Events

Preparation

It is in an Islamist maquis not far from Tébessa, in eastern Algeria, that Lassaad Sassi receives approval from leaders of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) to infiltrate Tunisia and create logistics support cells to recruit and train future terrorists. [3] He managed to convince four fellow Tunisians (Mohamed Hedi Ben Khlifa, Zouhair Riabi, Mohamed Mahmoudi and Tarak Hammami) and a Mauritanian (Mohammadou Maqam Maqam aka "Chokri") to accompany him. The night of the 22 into the 23rd of April, 2006, the commando crossed the border, overtaking Jebel ech Chambi, after four days of walking.

The next day, Sassi and Ben Khlifa went to Kasserine for supplies. A few days later, Hammami and Mahmoudi went to Sfax to find a cache, [3] but were arrested by security forces in Kasserine on April 27 for possession of grenades. [4] Ben Khlifa then contacted is brother-in-law in Sidi Bouzid for shelter without success. The group then made contact with members of a Salafist cell in Tunis, went to the capital in early June and finally found a hideout near Hammam-Lif. [3] During the summer and into autumn, the group of about twenty members changed hideouts several times, staying in a restricted area, and began manufacturing explosives, preferring to attack by car bomb as operating procedures against "vital infrastructures" of the Republic, "symbolic objectives" as well as "foreign interests" and "Tunisian and foreign personalities". [3]

It was then that about fifteen members of a Salafist cell in Sousse, mostly aged 25 to 30, believing they had been found out by the police, took refuge in a cave located in the Ain Tbornog mountains, on the heights of Grombalia, at the end of November 2006. At the beginning of December, the various groups united and Sassi was proclaimed "emir" of the cell. [3] The camp was set a five-hour walk from the nearest road with a handful of fighters guarding the hideout of Hammam Chott where explosives, food and money were stored.

First snap

According to the French paper Le Figaro, everything started on December 23 around six thirty at the entrance of Borj Cédria, a locality south of Tunis. [5]

Djebel Ressas mountains where the group retreated at first Tunisie Jebel Ressas 2.jpg
Djebel Ressas mountains where the group retreated at first

The occupants of a rental car refused to comply with a control of the National Guard, which started chasing the vehicle. The fugitives took refuge in a house in the locality of Bir El Bey, where they found armed companions. [5] A first exchange of fire then took place: two members of the group were shot dead, and two others arrested [6] while two law enforcement officers were wounded, one severely. [7] According to a source close to the investigation, it would seem that it was the arrest of Osama Hajji, a Salafist linked to members of the Sousse cell, who put the police on the group's tail. [3] The police then surrounded the hideout of Hammam Chott, where the militants opened fire.

After several hours of shooting, three policemen were wounded, two militants killed (including Zouhair Riabi), and a third arrested, while a last managed to flee. [3] The other members of the armed group manage to escape, and fall back into the wooded mountain range of Djebel Ressas. [5] Meanwhile, the police found an abundance of provisions and a stock of weapons in the abandoned house, [3] [5] called reinforcements, elite troops and armed forces, supported by helicopters, and began to rake the area. [5]

At the same time, a special force, including police, the National Guard and the army, was deployed on the A1 motorway linking Tunis to the south of the country, and police checkpoints were set up at the entrances of major cities, to carry out checks. [3] [8] They were also positioned around sensitive establishments such as hotels. [7] The following day, a dispatch from the official news agency Tunis Afrique Presse evoked a clash between police and "a gang of dangerous criminals". Most Tunisian newspapers, including Al Chourouk and Le Quotidien, [7] immediately published a news item related to international arms or drug trafficking. But some private newspapers, including the dailies Essarih and Assabah, evoked the hypothesis of a terrorist group. The latter also being favored by the Tunisian opposition. For their part, sources close to power privately admitted that the clash involved Tunisian, Algerian and Mauritanian Islamists from Algeria. [9] The daily Al-Hayat confirmed that "these armed men have infiltrated the country from Algeria". [8]

Operation

On 28 December, the army launched an operation in the Ain Tbornog mountains. However, an alert was given and Sassi ordered his fighters to prepare to resist. They managed to repel the police until dusk while helicopters flying over the low-lying area could not locate them. [3] As night fell, the group retreated to another mountain. The next day, assaulted again, Sassi decided to split his forces into four groups: the last two, a dozen men strong, had to fall back on Sousse and the first two, which counted also a dozen fighters, had to find refuge in Tunis. Inexperienced and unarmed, almost all members of the last three groups fell into the hands of the police forces in the hours or days that followed. [3] One of them blew himself up at the time of his arrest, killing an army officer, while another was killed in unclear circumstances.

Further shots were also heard on the morning of December 31 at Bab Saadoun, near the Tunis court. [9] According to sources of the Tunisian opposition, several police stations and barracks of the gendarmerie were the target of attacks in the region of Kairouan, the objective of the attackers being to recover arms. [10] However, this information could not be confirmed later.

Only the members of Sassi's group managed to pass through the cracks and get to the village of Soliman after five days of running. Sassi was killed during a clash, probably at the dawn of January 3. Rabia Bacha accompanied by Chokri went around 4 o'clock in the morning June 1 to the district where his parents lived. [3] [5] As Bacha prepared to enter his home, police hiding in the house opposite opened fire. The exchange of fire lasted two [5] or even three hours [9] according to sources. Bacha and Chokri slain, police forces then launched a final assault against the rest of the group, [5] Ben Khlifa, Sahbi El Masrouki, Makram Jrid, Mehdi El Mejri and Riadh Miri, who were waiting for the two men in a house in isolated construction at the entrance to the city. [3] According to a testimony collected by Agence France-Presse, one of them was reported to have surrendered to this group of five men and four others were reportedly killed after violent clashes with the police, allegedly using a tank, according to an eyewitness speaking with anonymity. [11] An amateur video taken during the events shows a Fiat 6614 of the Tunisian army [12] which is a light transport vehicle.

The newspaper Al Chourouk attributed the intensity of the shootings to the group's possession of weapons including "machine guns and RPG-type rocket launchers" along with "the presence of well-trained or even combat-trained members and the use of weapons for some". [13] In addition, the members of the group allegedly wore bullet-proof vests. [13]

Reactions

On January 12, for the first time since the shooting, Interior Minister Rafiq Belhaj Kacem officially spoke out and confirmed most of the information disclosed by the Tunisian press. He described the group as "Salafist Terrorists" [14] and said that all activists were Tunisians with the exception of one Mauritanian. [15] He explained that the police were monitoring this group, six of whom had infiltrated from Algeria, [14] and had waited for the cell to assemble before going into action with the help of the police and army, [15] which the Tunisian Embassy in France confirmed in January 2008. It also states that "explosives, embassy situation plans and names of foreign diplomats accredited in Tunisia were seized by the police". [16] However, he did not indicate the identity of the diplomats or countries whose embassies were targeted. He finally reported two dead and three wounded police officers and soldiers who clashed with gang members. [16] The police system set up around Cape Bon was gradually lightened, but many dams are maintained on the roads leading from Tunis to Hammamet. [5]

The Secretary-General of the Tunisian League for Human Rights denounced this "gross manipulation of presenting terrorists as common criminals". [17] The Communist Workers' Party of Tunisia, through its media outlet Al Badil, denounced the "black-out" media that "opened the door to all possible speculation around the identity of the armed group and provoked a mass panic with reports of other clashes across the city resulting in many deaths". [17] It warned the regime to take advantage of these events, restricting travel via road checkpoints. [17]

As of January 3, reports are circulating that the police have carried out dozens of arrests throughout the country. [5] For the Progressive Democratic Party, these arrests were reported to have taken place in Soliman, in the southern suburbs of Tunis, Kef, Sidi Bouzid, Kasserine and Gafsa. In Bizerte, young men were reportedly arrested at some mosques, according to a statement from the local party. [18] However, a government source denied this information on January 17, declaring it "irresponsible to indulge in unscrupulous speculation". [18]

Series of lawsuits

The alleged terrorists are charged on September 8 [19] with the following charges: [20]

  • belonging to an organization that has made terrorism a means to achieve its purposes;
  • participation in military training for the purpose of committing terrorist crimes
  • possession, carrying and transport of weapons, ammunition and explosives;
  • recruitment and training of a group of people in a terrorist enterprise;
  • provision of weapons and explosives for the benefit of a terrorist organization;
  • participation in an armed rebellion in the course of which officials were harmed and resulting in death;
  • attempted intentional homicide with premeditation ;
  • inciting people to kill each other and to cause disorder and murder on Tunisian territory.

Ten charges are laid against 30 defendants aged between 22 and 42, of whom 29 faced the death penalty. [19]

Following the fall of President Ben Ali in 2011, a general amnesty benefited the 30 members of the group sentenced. [21] The reconstruction of the facts, following the release of jihadist members involved in the shooting of Soliman after the Tunisian Revolution, lent itself to forms of media manipulation of the public opinion in order to make the attempt of jihadist insurrection pass for "a staging of a heroic epic", [22] thus preparing analogies with the propaganda of terrorist groups like the Islamic State.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sidi Bouzid</span> City in Sidi Bouzid Governorate, Tunisia

Sidi Bouzid, sometimes called Sidi Bou Zid or Sīdī Bū Zayd, is a city in Tunisia and is the capital of Sidi Bouzid Governorate in the centre of the country. Following the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid, it was the site of the first clashes of the Tunisian Revolution and a catalyst for other protests in the region, often known as the Arab Spring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat</span> Algerian terrorist faction

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, known by the French acronym GSPC, was an Algerian islamist terrorist faction in the Algerian Civil War founded in 1998 by Hassan Hattab, a former regional commander of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). After Hattab was ousted from the organization in 2003, the group officially pledged support for al-Qaeda, and in January 2007, the group officially changed its name to the "Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)</span> Sunni Islamic insurgency in the Maghreb

An Islamist insurgency is taking place in the Maghreb region of North Africa, followed on from the end of the Algerian Civil War in 2002. The Algerian militant group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) allied itself with al-Qaeda to eventually become al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Algerian and other Maghreb governments fighting the militants have worked with the United States and the United Kingdom since 2007, when Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara began.

al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Islamist militant organization in Northwest Africa and the Sahel

Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization that aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state. To that end, it is currently engaged in an insurgency campaign in the Maghreb and Sahel regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beji Caid Essebsi</span> President of Tunisia from 2014 to his death in 2019

Beji Caid Essebsi served as the fifth president of Tunisia from 31 December 2014 until his death on 25 July 2019. Previously, he served as minister of foreign affairs from 1981 to 1986 and prime minister from February to December 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chokri Belaid</span> Tunisian politician and lawyer

Chokri Belaïd, also transliterated as Shokri Belaïd, was a Tunisian politician and lawyer who was an opposition leader with the left-secular Democratic Patriots' Movement. Belaïd was a vocal critic of the Ben Ali regime prior to the 2011 Tunisian revolution and of the then Islamist-led Tunisian government. On 6 February 2013, he was fatally shot outside his house in El Menzah, close to the Tunisian capital, Tunis. As a result of his assassination, Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali announced his plan to dissolve the existing national government and to form a temporary "national unity" government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohamed Brahmi</span> Tunisian politician

Mohamed Brahmi was a Tunisian politician. Brahmi was the founder and former leader of the People's Movement, which, under his leadership, won two seats in the constituent election in 2011.

Anarchism in Tunisia has its roots in the works of the philosopher Ibn Khaldun, with the modern anarchist movement being first brought to the country in the late 19th century by Italian immigrants. The contemporary anarchist movement arose as a result of the Arab Spring and the aftermath of the Tunisian Revolution.

A political crisis evolved in Tunisia following the assassination of leftist leader Mohamed Brahmi in late July 2013, during which the country's mainly secular opposition organized several protests against the ruling Troika alliance that was dominated by Rashid al-Ghannushi's Islamist Ennahda Movement. The events came as part of the aftermath of the Tunisian Revolution which ousted the country's longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, followed by a general election which saw Ennahda win a plurality alongside Moncef Marzouki's allied Congress for the Republic (CPR). The crisis gradually subsided when Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh resigned and a new constitution was adopted in January 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaambi Operations</span> 2012 battle in Tunisia

The Chaambi Operations, or Battle of Chaambi were part of the insurgency in the Maghreb. In December 2012, the Tunisian Army launched an offensive against the Salafist jihadists in Jebel ech Chambi near Kasserine. The conflict ended with the victory of the Tunisian Army in 2019.

The 2009 UNAF Women's Tournament is the 1st edition of the UNAF Women's Tournament, an association football tournament open to the women's national teams of UNAF member countries. The tournament took place in Tunisia. Of the five UNAF member countries, Libya and Morocco chose not to participate in the competition. Tunisia won the competition after winning their two games against Algeria and Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State insurgency in Tunisia</span> Armed conflict (2015–2022)

The Islamic State Insurgency in Tunisia referred to the low–level militant and terror activity of the Islamic State branch in Tunisia from 2015 to 2022. The activity of the Islamic State (IS) in Tunisia began in June 2015, with the Sousse attacks, though an earlier terror incident in Bardo Museum in March 2015 was claimed by ISIL, while the Tunisian government blamed Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade for the attack. Following massive border clashes near Ben Guerdane in March 2016, the activity of the IS group was described as an armed insurgency, switching from previous tactics of sporadic suicide attacks to attempts to gain territorial control. The armed insurgency was suppressed in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sayida Ounissi</span> Tunisian politician (born 1987)

Sayida Ounissi is a Tunisian politician representing the party of Ennahdha. She currently serves as Secretary of State for Vocational Training.

On 23 December 2006 and 3 January 2007, Tunisian security forces engaged in clashes with members of a group with connections to the Islamist terror group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in the towns of Soliman and Hammam-Lif south of the capital Tunis, killing more than a dozen people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sidi Abdallah Guech</span> Legal red light district in Tunis

Sidi Abdallah Guech street, officially known as "Impasse Sidi Abdallah Gueche", is the legal red light district in Tunis. It is located in the medina and consists of three narrow winding alleys. There are rooms on both sides of the alleys where girls try to attract clients. Only men are allowed in the alleys.

Alaa Talbi is a Tunisian Civil Society and human Rights activist. He was born in Kasserine, on April 4, 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raoued Operation</span>

The Raoued operation was an anti-terrorist operation that was conducted in February 2014 in Raoued, Tunisia against Salafist extremists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nabil Karoui</span> Tunisian politician and businessman

Nabil Karoui is a Tunisian politician and businessman. One of the key figures in the Tunisian media landscape, Karoui is CEO of Karoui & Karoui World and owner of the Tunisian television station Nessma. Karoui ran as a candidate in the 2019 Tunisian presidential election, finishing in second place.

Khemais Chammari was a Tunisian human rights activist, diplomat, and politician of the Movement of Socialist Democrats (MDS). He was sentenced to prison many times by the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boubaker El Hakim</span> Islamic terrorist (1983-2016), high-ranking officer of the Islamic State

Boubaker El Hakim, also known by his nom de guerreAbou Mouqatel, was a Franco-Tunisian jihadist who was the highest ranking French officer in the Islamic State at the time of his death. He was killed by a drone on 26 November 2016 in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

References

  1. ↑ "Vincent Geisser, chargé de recherche au CNRS". mfile.akamai.com (in French). 5 January 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  2. ↑ Khaled A. Nasri, « Tunisie. Ben Ali règle ses comptes », Telquel , 19 janvier 2008
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Samy Ghorbal, "Comment les salafistes ont été neutralisés". jeuneafrique.com (in French). 7 January 2008. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  4. ↑ "Tunisie : procès de jihadistes du groupe impliqué dans des affrontements". tunisiawatch.rsfblog.org (in French). 26 January 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Arielle Thédrel, "La Tunisie aux prises avec al-Qaida". lefigaro.fr. 11 January 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  6. ↑ Sanaa Tamssnaoui, "La Salafiya fait son apparition en Tunisie". aujourdhui.ma (in French). 9 January 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 "Tunisie. Les forces de la sécurité continuent de traquer "un groupe de dangereux criminels"". tunisiawatch.rsfblog.org (in French). 3 January 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-01-28.
  8. 1 2 Elisa Drago, "Mystérieuses fusillades". rfi.fr (in French). 4 January 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  9. 1 2 3 José Garçon, "Fusillades à répétition dans la Tunisie tranquille de Ben Ali". liberation.fr (in French). 4 January 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  10. ↑ Florence Beaugé, "Seconde fusillade en dix jours aux abords de Tunis". tunisiawatch.rsfblog.org (in French). 5 January 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-05-21.
  11. ↑ « Fusillades en Tunisie : le chef d’un groupe salafiste éliminé », Agence France-Presse, 9 janvier 2007
  12. ↑ Vidéo amateur prise à Hammam Chott on Dailymotion
  13. 1 2 "Tunisie. Les "salafistes" sont venus d'Algérie selon la presse". tunisiawatch.rsfblog.org (in French). 11 January 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-02-23.
  14. 1 2 "Tunisie. Des ambassades et des diplomates étrangers étaient ciblés par le groupe armé récemment neutralisé". tempsreel.nouvelobs.com (in French). 12 January 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-02-26. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  15. 1 2 « La cellule démantelée en Tunisie était islamiste », Reuters , 12 janvier 2007
  16. 1 2 « Fusillades en Tunisie : explosifs et plans d’ambassades saisis », Agence France-Presse , 12 janvier 2007.
  17. 1 2 3 Salima Tlemçani, « La Tunisie touchée par le terrorisme », El Watan, 6 January 2008.
  18. 1 2 "Fusillades en Tunisie : Tunis dément procéder à des arrestations massives". avmaroc.com (in French). 17 January 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  19. 1 2 "Tunisie : 29 présumés terroristes inculpés de complot contre l'État". tunisiawatch.rsfblog.org (in French). 19 September 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-07-01.
  20. ↑ Abdelmajid Haouachi, « L’affaire de Soliman à l’heure du verdict », Réalités , No. 1150, 10 janvier 2008
  21. ↑ « Tunisie : libération de tous les prisonniers politiques, selon un avocat », Associated Press , 2 mars 2011
  22. ↑ "Tunisie. Un documentaire sur l'affaire de Soliman fait polémique". lecourrierdelatlas.com (in French). 9 May 2012. Archived from the original on 16 December 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.