On 23 December 2006 and 3 January 2007, Tunisian security forces engaged in clashes with members of a group with connections to the Islamist terror group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in the towns of Soliman and Hammam-Lif south of the capital Tunis, killing more than a dozen people. ^{[1] [2]}

Clashes

On 23 December, two Islamists were killed and two arrested in a shootout with police in the town of Hammam-Lif south of Tunis. ^[3]

On 3 January, at least two members of Tunisian security forces and twelve Islamists were killed, and fifteen arrested in a clash in a forested area near Soliman. ^{[3] [4]}

Among those killed was the leader of the group, Lassaad Sassi, a former Tunisian policeman who had spent time in Afghanistan and headed a terror network based in Milan, Italy. Sassi's group had reportedly established training camps in the mountains in Djebel Ressas and Boukornine south of the Tunisian capital. ^[5]

According to French daily Le Parisien at least 60 people were killed in the clashes. ^[1] It was later revealed that the Islamists had been in possession of blueprints of foreign embassies as possible targets. ^{[3] [4]} The attacks were the most serious by Islamists in Tunisia since the Ghriba synagogue bombing in 2002. ^[1]

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