Algeria’s army has reinforced its forces along the eastern border with Tunisia, Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said on Thursday, days after the killing of eight Tunisian soldiers.
The soldiers were found on Monday with their throats cut after being ambushed by jihadist militants in Mount Chaambi, a neighborhood near the border with Algeria.
Algeria’s army “reinforced its resources and capabilities at the eastern border of the rustic due to troubles that Tunisia goes through,” Kablia told the national news agency APS.
Tunisian troops have intensified their hunt for an armed group inside the Mount Chaambi area because the spring, after several members of the safety forces were killed or wounded by explosive devices.
Algiers has said it strongly condemns “the base act of terrorism that led to several deaths among the many Tunisian militia.”
Islamist militant groups in Algeria remain active decades after a bloody civil war within the 1990s that killed some 200,000 people, leading some in Tunisia to indicate connections with the gang in Mount Chaambi.
Algeria’s foreign ministry condemned on Thursday what it said were “false allegations” against Algeria from “certain circles in Tunisia.”
In an announcement published by APS news agency, ministry spokesman Amar Belani decried the allegations as a move to “deceive the Tunisian people as they’re mobilizing to unite against terrorism.”
Interior Minister Kablia said there were an “exchange of security information between Algeria and its neighbors to fight the diverse scourges that threaten the safety and stability of the region.”
Exchanges of visits by senior officials from Tunisia, Libya and Algeria have resulted in closer cross-border cooperation.
Separately, the defence ministry issued an extraordinary communique where it said a vital of arms and ammunition have been seized on Thursday 2,300 kilometres south of Algiers, not faraway from the Libyan border.
A heavy machinegun, two rifles, a signficant quantity of ammunition and a number of RPG-7 rockets were present in two 4X4 vehicles.
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