Tunisia blocks 12000 from joining terror

(MENAFN- Arab News) TUNIS: Tunisian authorities have prevented more than 12000 would-be terrorists from leaving the country over the past two years Interior Minister Najem Gharsalli said on Friday.
Speaking to a parliamentary committee examining an anti-terror bill he said his ministry had prevented '12490 Tunisians from leaving Tunisian territory to travel to combat zones' in Iraq Libya and Syria since March 2013.
Authorities estimate that between 2000 and 3000 Tunisians have still managed to head abroad for such purposes representing a long-term threat to security at home.
Gharsalli also said 1000 people had been brought before the courts in the first quarter of 2015 for belonging to a terrorist organization but did not say how many were in custody or had been formally charged.
Since a popular uprising ousted long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 Tunisia has been targeted by violence which has killed dozens of police and soldiers.
More recently 21 foreign tourists were gunned down when jihadists claiming links to the Islamic State group assaulted the capital's Bardo National Museum on March 18.