Sundus attack

Last updated
Sundus attack
Part of Algerian Civil War
LocationSundus, Tunisia
Date11 February 1995
Target Tunisian National Guard
Deaths6 guards
Perpetrators Armed Islamic Group of Algeria

The Sundus attack was a raid by Algerian Islamist militias on the National Guard office in Sundus (near Tamerza) in Tunisia on 11 February 1995. All six of the Tunisian paramilitary national guards were killed, and the Algerian Islamists seized the garrison's weapons and ammunition. [1] This was the first time Tunisia was attacked by Islamists since the start of the Algerian Civil War in 1991. The Tunisian government denied this incident and claimed that the soldiers died in a car accident out of fear that it would damage tourism and foreign investment. [2] The Armed Islamic Group of Algeria claimed responsibility for this incident a few days later and said it was a message to Tunisian authorities for oppressing Islamists. Another reason for this is that Tunisian authorities engaged in a large operation with the Algerian military against Islamist insurgents. Two similar incidents occurred in al-Kaf and 'Ayn al-Darahim. [2] [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armed Islamic Group of Algeria</span> 1993–2004 Islamist insurgent group in the Algerian Civil War

The Armed Islamic Group was one of the two main Islamist insurgent groups that fought the Algerian government and army in the Algerian Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Tunisia</span> Religion in Tunisia

Islam is the official state religion in Tunisia. According to CIA, 99.1% of its adherents are Sunni Muslims. The constitution of Tunisia states that the country's “religion is Islam”, the government is the “guardian of religion”, and requires that the president be Muslim. The predominant madhhab in the country is the Maliki school. The Tunisian island of Djerba is home to a population of Ibadi Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algerian Civil War</span> 1991–2002 conflict between the Algerian government and Islamist rebels

The Algerian Civil War, known in Algeria as the Black Decade, was a civil war fought between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups from 26 December 1991 to 8 February 2002. The war began slowly, as it initially appeared the government had successfully crushed the Islamist movement, but armed groups emerged to declare jihad and by 1994, violence had reached such a level that it appeared the government might not be able to withstand it. By 1996–97, it had become clear that the Islamist resistance had lost its popular support, although fighting continued for several years after.

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, known by the French acronym GSPC, was an Algerian 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 terrorism in the Maghreb

The insurgency in the Maghreb refers to the ongoing Islamist insurgency in the Maghreb region of North Africa that 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algeria–Libya relations</span> Bilateral relations

Relations between Algeria and Libya are considerably strained by tensions between the revolutionary National Transitional Council (NTC) of Libya and the single-party autocracy of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria. Bilateral relations were generally amicable during Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule of Libya.

Events from the year 2009 in Algeria

Events from the year 2010 in Algeria

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

Al-Qaeda in 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.

The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa or the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, was a militant Islamist organisation that broke off from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb with the intended goal of spreading jihad across a larger section of West Africa, as well as demanding the expulsion of all French interests that operates in West Africa, which they regard as "colonialist occupiers".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">In Amenas hostage crisis</span> 2013 hostage crisis in Algeria

The In Amenas hostage crisis began on 16 January 2013, when al-Qaeda-linked terrorists affiliated with a brigade led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar took expat hostages at the Tigantourine gas facility near In Amenas, Algeria. One of Belmokhtar's senior lieutenants, Abdul al Nigeri, led the attack and was among the terrorists killed. After four days, the Algerian special forces raided the site, in an effort to free the hostages.

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">Second Libyan Civil War</span> 2014–2020 multi-sided civil war in Libya

The Second Libyan Civil War was a multilateral civil war that lasted from 2014 to 2020 in the North African country of Libya fought between different armed groups, mainly the House of Representatives (HoR) and the Government of National Accord.

On 16 July 2014, militants from the Uqba Ibn Nafi Battalion attacked two checkpoints in the Chaambi Mountains killing fourteen Tunisian soldiers and injuring twenty-five. The 2014 Chaambi Mountains attack is the deadliest militant skirmish involving the Tunisian Armed Forces since their independence in 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaambi Operations</span>

The Chaambi Operations or Battle of Chaambi is part of the insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present). In December 2012, the Tunisian Army launched an offensive against the Salafist jihadists in Jebel ech Chambi near Kasserine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bardo National Museum attack</span> 2015 mass killing of hostages by militants in Tunis, Tunisia

On 18 March 2015, two militants attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis, and took hostages. Twenty-one people, mostly European tourists, were killed at the scene, and an additional victim died ten days later. Around fifty others were injured. The two gunmen, Tunisian citizens Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, were killed by police. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Bamako hotel attack</span> Terrorist attack in Radisson Blu, Bamako

On 20 November 2015, Islamist militants took 170 hostages and killed 20 of them in a mass shooting at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, the capital city of Mali. Malian commandos along with Kyle Morgan, a special mission unit operator from the US Army’s Combat Application Group, commonly referred to as Delta Force, assaulted the hotel and freed the surviving hostages. Al-Mourabitoun claimed that it carried out the attack "in cooperation with" Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; an Al Qaeda member confirmed that the two groups cooperated in the attack.

The IS insurgency in Tunisia refers to the ongoing militant and terror activity of the Islamic State branch in Tunisia. 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.

From March to May 1998, a terror plot against the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France was uncovered by European law enforcement agencies. More than 100 people were arrested in seven countries as a result of the plot. Organised by the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and backed by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the plot is thought to have targeted the England–Tunisia match on 15 June 1998, and involved infiltrating the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille in order to attack players and spectators during the game, attack the hotel in Paris hosting the United States national team, and finally hijacking an aircraft and crashing it into the Civaux Nuclear Power Plant near Poitiers.

References

  1. (in French) L’attaque terroriste de "Sondes"…22 ans après, Mosaique FM, 12 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 Maddy-weitzman, Bruce (1997-10-30). Middle East Contemporary Survey: Volume Xix, 1995. The Moshe Dayan Center. p. 630. ISBN   978-0-8133-3411-0.
  3. Ibrahim, Youssef M. (1995-02-17). "Algeria Rebels Said to Attack Post in Tunisia". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-03-08.