The militants next door: Tunisia sees its sons join the Islamic State in neighboring Libya — and then return to attack SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN, The Washington Post  14 May 2016 Image: Young men hang out in a cafe in Ben Guerdane, Tunisia. A lack of jobs in the city means many are vulnerable to Islamic State recruiters. (PHOTOS BY LORENZO TUGNOLI FOR THE WASHINGTON POST ) ben guerdane, tunisia — The families arrived at the cemetery in the night carrying

Mediterranean migrant deaths in 2015 may hit 30,000: IOM BBC News Europe 21 April 2015 The number of migrants dying in Mediterranean Sea crossings could hit 30,000 this year if the current rate continues, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says. The deaths in 2015 so far are 30 times higher than the same period last year. The UN believes the sinking of one boat at the weekend claimed over 800 lives, making it the deadliest recorded.

Tunisians Are Shaken as Young Women Turn to Extremism By Carlotta Gall, The New York Times 20 November 2014 Leila Mustapha Saidi returned home on a recent day to find her daughter Henda missing, along with her computer. Mrs. Saidi, who had watched her daughter grow religious and “obsessed” with the conflict in Syria, said she feared she had run off to join Islamist fighters there. Instead, the police called four days later. Her daughter Henda

Jihadi wave tests Tunisia's young democracy By Patrick Markey and Tarek Amara, Reuters 21 November 2014 Tunisians were used to seeing Nidhal Selmi belting around a stadium, proudly sporting his country's red and white colors as a defender on the national football squad. So it was a shock when he appeared in a camouflage jacket with a Khalashnikov rifle across his thigh in a photograph from Syria posted online shortly before he was killed fighting

How Tunisia’s Arab Spring has fueled the Islamic State By Kevin Sullivan, The Washington Post 28 October 2014 TUNIS — Tunisian pastry chef Slim Gasmi died on a Syrian battlefield and was lionized with a hashtag: #martyrdomofabuqatada. Gasmi, 28, had been trying to build a life for himself and his new fiancee in a working-class Tunis neighborhood, but a radical Islamist roommate persuaded him to travel to Syria to fight in that country’s civil

Libyan Refugees Stream to Tunisia for Care, and Tell of a Home That Is Torn Apart Carlotta Gall, The New York Times 9 September 2014 Libyans seeking medical care and a refuge from war are filling the private clinics in this coastal Tunisian city for the second time in three years, bringing with them fresh accounts of the violence racking their country. Since the revolution three years ago that overthrew Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, about 1.8 million

As Moderate Islamists Retreat, Extremists Surge Unchecked By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, The New York Times June 19th, 2014 TUNIS — Islamist politicians swept elections across the region in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, stepping close to power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Morocco and undermining the thesis of Qaeda-style militants that violence offered the only hope for change. Today, those politicians are in frantic retreat from Riyadh to Rabat,

By Reuters 13 June 2014 Tunisia is set to hold separate parliamentary and presidential elections at the end of the year after political parties resolved a dispute over the election date on Friday, political sources told Reuters. Tunisia's national assembly approved a new electoral law in May to help the country move to full democracy after the 2011 uprising that inspired the "Arab Spring" revolts. Boussairi Bou Abdeli, a politician who participated

July 24, 2012In 1956 Tunisia gained its independence from French colonial rule. For many years following its independence, the country enjoyed a flourishing large middle class and liberal social norms under the rule of Habib Bourguiba who led the county for three decades.  Bourguiba was a modern thinker who believed in the advancement of women, abolition of polygamy and compulsory free education for his people.President Bourguiba drew a clear line