Attackers ‘behead’ Tunisian Shepherd – Manila Standard

The decapitated body of a young man was found in the central Kasserine region of Tunisia in a probable “terrorist” attack, a justice official said. “The decapitated body of a young man has been found … and it is likely that a terrorist group was behind the attack,” said chief prosecutor Mohsen Dali, naming the victim as 20-year-old Oqba al-Dhibi. An investigation was underway, he added. Local radio said that Dhibi was a shepherd tending his flock when he was attacked. There was no immediate attribution of responsibility. Attacks have been carried out in the same mountainous areas in central Tunisia before, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) southwest of the capital. In 2015, the teenage Mabrouk Soltani was beheaded by an extremist group, a murder that shook public opinion. Two years later, his older brother, Khalifa Soltani, was found dead after a gang reported him as kidnapped in the same region. Those two murders were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group. Tunisia’s mountainous central region is also a hiding place for the Tunisian branch of the jihadist group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), known as Okba Ibn Nafaa. Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, in a brief statement, denounced a “terrorist operation” and stressed that the fight “must continue without truce.” Since its 2011 revolution, Tunisia has been hit by a series of jihadist attacks that have killed dozens of security personnel, civilians and foreign tourists. Although the situation has improved significantly, Tunisia has maintained a state of emergency.