One Tunisian soldier was killed and two wounded in a landmine blast late on Sunday in a central region bordering Algeria where security forces have been fighting Islamist militants, authorities said.

Tunisian forces are on high alert after gunmen stormed the Bardo museum in Tunis last week, killing 20 foreign tourists in the worst attack in the North African country in more than a decade.

The army has also been trying to hunt down a small group of al Qaeda-linked fighters who use the Chaambi mountains near Algeria as a base for attacks.

“One soldier has been killed and two others lightly wounded by a landmine set by terrorists near the Algerian border in Kef province,” army spokesman Bel Hassen Ouslati said.

Tunisia has emerged as a model of democratic transition four years after the revolt that ousted Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

But its armed forces have clashed with militants in remote areas near Algeria’s border and authorities estimate thousands of Tunisians have traveled to fight alongside Islamists in neighboring Libya and in Syria.

The Libyan National Army (LNA) says it has bombed Libya Dawn’s operations room in Tarhouna, 90 kilometres south east of the Tripoli, this morning. Another report says that it was a LD training camp that was bombed and that there were a number of deaths.

So far there has been no confirmation of the reports.

There has been a number of claims about air raids by both sides that have turned out to be inaccurate, and in some cases apparently deliberately misleading.

The last definite air attacks in the west of the country by the LNA were on Saturday. Yesterday, LNA sources claimed to have hit a number of targets in the capital, including two near Tripoli International Airport. But no such strikes appeared to have occurred.

Algeria and Italy are willing to strengthen the fight against terrorism, including Libya, said Sunday in Algiers Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs Abdelkader Messahel and Italian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Lapo Pistelli.

In a press briefing following the Algerian-Italian high-level contact group meeting on the fight against terrorism, Pistelli stated that “Algeria and Italy are able to face the terrorist threat of the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist Organization (Daech).”

“The friendship between Algeria and Italian and their cooperation in the fight against terrorism is stronger than the terrorist threat,” Pistelli added.

Referring to arms trafficking that proliferates in Libya and neighboring countries, the same official stressed the entire Sahel region is threatened by arms and drug trafficking.

Moreover, the Algerian-Italian relations are “solid”, he stressed noting that the two countries are “allies and brothers.”

For his part, Messahel emphasized the need to “quickly stabilize Libya,” noting the importance of stability in the neighboring countries to achieve stability in neighboring countries, including Algeria and Italy.

“There is a terrorist threat to the entire region. It is useful, important and urgent that countries such as Algeria and Italy meet to assess the threat and its consequences,” said Messahel, noting that it is necessary to strengthen the fight against terrorism between the two countries.

In addition to the fight against terrorism, the two sides discussed at the meeting other “concrete” programs for bilateral cooperation, including the next meeting of the Algerian-Italian Joint Commission scheduled before the Holy month Ramadan.

At least 13 Taliban insurgents were killed during a series of coordinated operations over the past 24 hours by the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), the Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Monday.

Four other insurgents were arrested in these operations conducted in Nangarhar, Sar-e-Pul, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Logar, Ghazni, Paktiya, Farah and Helmand provinces, the statement said.

“During the same 24 hour period, the police discovered and defused 11 different types of IEDs placed in Nangarhar, Jowzjan, Uruzgan, Khost and Herat provinces,” the statement noted.

The Taliban, however, have not commented so far in this regard.

Security services have identified up to a dozen British mosques potentially infiltrated by Islamic State executioner Jihadi John.

The butcher unmasked as Londoner Mohammed Emwazi toured Islamic places of worship as early as 2006 and encouraged young Muslim men to join his gang.

Mosques in London, Birmingham and Manchester have been identified by MI5 and the police as they continue us to build a picture up of his time in the UK before he fled to war torn Syria in 2013.

A number of more high profile mosques are understood to have had “sleeper agents” working in them for up to five years.

The moles have reported back information on persons known to have associated with Emwazi and his Al Qaeda sleeper cell known as “The London Boys”.

Court documents show Emwazi was part of a terror fundraising network being monitored from as early as 2007.

The Mirror revealed how Emwazi was recruited to an international terror gang at least a year earlier by Ahmed Mohamed who lived less than two miles from his home in Queen’s Park, West London.

A senior security source said: “This is a vital piece of work in establishing what Mohammed Emwazi was up to before he fled to Syria to join Islamic State.

“There could be up to 12 mosques he visited, some on a regular basis.

“A small group involving Emwazi and two or three others were tasked with raising money for Muslim fighters in Syria and Iraq.

“The worrying aspect of this is that no one raised the alarm as to what he was doing.”

Emwazi was deported from Tanzania in 2009 and allegedly intercepted by British security officials working for MI5.

The secret service reportedly tried to recruit him to act as a sleeper agent and deliver vital information to then in the war against home grown terror.

But Emwazi was already in contact with senior ranking commanders from al-Qaeda as well as its sister organisation Al-Shabaab in Africa.

He along with at least four other British based wannabe jihadis had been tasked with recruiting others and raising funds for Syrian based operations in mosques around the country.

Emwazi and another jihadi, Mohammed Ahmed Mohemmed, who escaped a controversial TPIM order to restrict his movements became regulars at mosques in these three cities as they sought to expand their gang.

Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti announced that the naval and air assets deployed by Italy in reaction to the increasing terror threat emanating from North Africa have been boosted.

Further naval and air assets have been deployed as part of Italy’s ‘Mare Sicuro’ (‘Safe Sea’) operation in the Mediterranean, and, although no details were given, the fact that “further fixed- and rotary-wing assets” were deployed should indicate the presence of at least one carrier or dock landing platform (LPD) in the area, together with corvette/frigate-sized naval vessels.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have also reportedly been engaged in the operation; the Italian Air Force operates Predator UAVs from Amendola Air Force Base in southern Italy.

The deadly assault at the National Bardo Museum in Tunisia raised strong concerns in Italy and an intense debate on how best to react to the rising threat of radical Islamist groups.

Four Italians were among the foreign tourists killed on Wednesday in Tunis, and they were for Italy the first direct victims to mourn at the hands of the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
These events brought about two major results in the short term, according to analysts.

Firstly, a shift in the domestic perception of Islamic terrorism, with the risk for common people to increasingly feeling surrounded by its threat.

Secondly, it made more pressing the need of an effective European and global policy to help Tunisia and other countries in the region containing the spread of radicalism by curing its roots, a priority on which Italy might act as driving force within the European Union (EU).

“Economy is the crucial keystone to counter terrorism and sustain acceptable transition processes in these countries,” foreign affairs analyst Alberto Negri with Il Sole 24 Ore business-daily told Xinhua.

After social unrest and major political changes affected most of North Africa and Middle East in 2011, Western powers pledged 80 billion U.S. dollars and a new development plan to boost economic growth and political stability in the region, the expert recalled.

“Yet, after those great promises, nothing has been done and the Mediterranean is a tinderbox again,” Negri said.

Two different actions would be now immediately necessary: economic support to Tunisia and the region, where unemployment rates often reach 25 to 30 percent; secondly, assistance on security.

“I am not suggesting the deployment of any troop, this must be very clear. What I mean is to cooperate with the Tunisian government on three points: help training their forces, provide (counter-terrorism) intelligence consultancy, and give them all technologies required to monitoring their coasts,” he explained.

However, the deadly attack in Tunis changed little so far in terms of threats to Italy’s security, another analyst said.

“A direct threat to Italy exists but is limited, and the potential danger still comes from foreign fighters and isolated cells,” Gabriele Iacovino, analysts’ coordinator and North Africa expert with Rome-based Center for International Studies, explained.

“Yet, the attack in Tunis increased the general awareness: it made it clear Islamic terrorism targets not only the Western but also Arab and North African countries directly and, most of all, that this threat clearly has a regional dynamic”.

Inevitably, the attack also impacted the people’s perception.

“Common Italians were targeted in Tunis, maybe people spending their holidays in March because it is low season and they could afford it… This easily brings citizens to perceive terrorism threat as more and more approaching,” Iacovino noted.

A key factor to avoid panic rising would be to understand that such threats are regional and need, as such, to be addressed with regional strategies, he added.

Both analysts agreed Italy might be a driving force in order to make the EU diplomatic strategy towards Tunisia and the North Africa region more consistent and successful.

“As major European trading partner of Tunisia, along with France, Italy can play a crucial role in orienting the EU policy on this priority,” Negri said.

“Italy already provides Tunisia with the necessary means to monitor their coasts, and with some success, which gives us a certain credibility,” he said.

Plus, over 6,000 Italian firms operate in that country, and a portion of the Algerian gas pipeline that arrives in Sicily passes through the Tunisian territory.

“Therefore, supporting Tunisia means for Italy helping to stabilize a strategic country and a strategic area, such as the Mediterranean and the Maghreb, in which we are on the front line,” Negri added.

Italy wants Egypt and Tunisia to play a role in rescuing stricken migrant vessels in the Mediterranean, a government planning paper showed, so that survivors could be taken back to African instead of European ports.

The plan, which calls for the European Union to support the proposed Egyptian and Tunisian operations, was prepared by the Italian home affairs ministry and seen by Reuters.

It represents an attempt to stem the growing flow of people risking their lives to reach Europe, most of whom try to get to Italy, often on overcrowded or defective vessels.

Last April Italy rescued 4,000 migrants from boats trying to reach European shores in only 48 hours in a deepening immigration crisis that is being made worse by the turmoil in Libya, which has grappled with chaos and rampant militias since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

In one of the worst such tragedies in October 2013, a boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. The Italian Coast Guard managed to rescue 155 survivors but more than 360 migrants drowned.

Italy is already in bilateral talks on sea-rescue operations with Tunisia and Egypt, but joint diplomatic action of the EU is crucial to get them involved, the paper, said.

According to the plan, Tunisian and Egyptian naval units would intervene to rescue migrants in areas close to Libya, which is the main departing point for migrants bound for Europe, but has no effective control of its territorial waters because of the ongoing conflict between its warring factions.

Once the migrants are taken out of the sea by the Egyptians or the Tunisians, they could be taken to North African ports, the paper said.

The Tunisian and Egyptian operations should be carried out in cooperation with Italian and European authorities and be adequately financially and technically supported by the EU, Italy said.

Since then, Triton, a European border control operation, was launched under the lead of the European border agency Frontex.

Italy says that the number of migrants that arrived at its shores in the fist two months of 2015 was almost twice as big as in the same period of last year, when the Mare Nostrum operation was in place, the paper said.

Lebanese Shiite political party and militant group Hezbollah mobilized hundreds of its fighters in Syria over the past days, Mustaqbal newspaper reported Sunday.

According to the Lebanese daily, the dispatch of Hezbollah fighters to Syria had already begun.

Witnesses are fearful that the violent clashes between Hezbollah and the Islamic State (ISIL) jihadists along the Syrian-Lebanese border may erupt as the weather improves, according to Mustaqbal.

The possible offensive will be the second one for Hezbollah. The first battle started on November 15, 2013 when Hezbollah fighters along with the Syrian Army launched air strikes against the rebels operating in the area.

Houthi forces and others in Yemen have committed a spate of attacks and other abuses against the media amid deteriorating political and security conditions.

In recent weeks, there has been an increase in arbitrary arrests and violence against journalists and other media workers by Ansar Allah, the Zaidi Shia armed group known as the Houthis that now controls the capital, Sanaa.

Armed Ansar Allah militia has stormed the headquarters of three media outlets since January 2015. Other groups may also be involved in attacks. On March 18, unidentified gunmen killed Abdul Karim Mohammed al-Khaiwani, an Ansar Allah supporter and critic of the former government, near his home in Sanaa.

“The breakdown in security across Yemen has put the country’s media in particular danger,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “All sides in Yemen should send a clear message to their forces to stop threats and attacks against journalists.”

Ansar Allah has controlled much of northern Yemen since September 2014, and in January 2015 effectively ousted President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, sparking widespread protests. On February 8, Yemen’s interim interior minister ordered Sanaa police to prevent all unauthorized demonstrations due to “the exceptional circumstances” in Yemen.

This indefinite ban on public protests violates the right to peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said. Five employees of state broadcast and print media outlets told Human Rights Watch that since taking control of Sanaa, Ansar Allah has inserted its own people into senior positions at various media outlets.

Human Rights Watch documented seven incidents involving attacks on journalists and the media between December 31, 2014, and March 7, 2015. Ma`d al-Zekri, a cameraman for Azal TV, told Human Rights Watch that armed men took him and his 20-year-old brother from their home at 1:30 a.m. on December 31, 2014, blindfolded them, and drove them to a building where the men held the brothers in separate rooms.

Al-Zekri said a man interrogated him about a news clip he had made about the Islamist militant group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that had aired in October, and demanded to know where an AQAP leader al-Zekri had interviewed could be found.

The cameraman said he was kept blindfolded, given electric shocks, had dirty water poured over him, and was given food and a restroom visit only once each day. “On the third day some men came in, apologized for having detained me, and said it had been a mistake,” al-Zekri told Human Rights Watch.

They then warned him “not to write about or against Al-Qaeda as much,” and freed him and his brother. Al-Zekri filed a complaint with the police and the attorney general but the authorities told him they could do nothing and he should take his complaint to Ansar Allah directly.

Kamal Gamal of Suhail TV told Human Rights Watch that armed men in civilian clothes detained him and a cameraman, Yahya al-A`awar, on February 3, 2015, as they filmed a political polling process among students at Sanaa University. Gamal said the two men spoke into walkie talkies, told them that no photography or filming was permitted, and detained them when they kept filming. The armed men held the two journalists on the campus until police came and took them to a police station. Hours later, the police returned their equipment and released them.

Saif al-Haddiri, chairman of the al-Shumoa Press Foundation, which prints four publications, told Human Rights Watch that about 40 armed men believed to be Ansar Allah forced their way into the foundation’s offices on February 5.

They ordered all staff to leave the five-story building, then seized computers, broadcasting and other equipment, videos, and CDs whose total value he estimated at US$18,600. Some wore military-style uniforms while others were in civilian clothes and carried slogans in support of Ansar Allah. More than a month later, the men still control the foundation’s building and continue to remove property from it, al-Haddiri said.

Ameen Dabwan, a correspondent for Yemen Shabab TV, told Human Rights Watch that five armed men in police uniforms with Ansar Allah stickers detained him on February 6 as he filmed an anti-Ansar Allah demonstration in Sanaa’s Change Square. They took his camera and later his cell phone and detained him overnight at the police station with five arrested protesters, threatening to beat them. Police released him after 24 hours but did not return his camera or his phone.

Nabil al-Sharabi, an editor at Akhbar al-Yom newspaper, told Human Rights Watch that on March 5, five men carrying assault rifles bearing Ansar Allah stickers broke into the building housing the newspaper’s staff. One wore a Special Security Forces uniform, while the others were in civilian clothes. They took him and four colleagues to the newspaper’s office in the building next door, where they forced him at gunpoint to sign a pledge not to “engage in any acts that opposed them.” They released him four hours later but still hold one of his colleagues, he said.

A Suhail TV correspondent, Hisham Hadi, told Human Rights Watch that 12 armed men in military and Special Security Forces uniforms, accompanied by 6 others in civilian clothes, seized him on March 7 as he covered a protest in Ibb, a city south of Sanaa. He said the men drove him to a private residence that they used as an unofficial detention facility where other men blindfolded, questioned, and insulted him. They released him on March 9.

Abdulrahman al-Nahari, owner of Widian FM radio station and a media services and production business in Hodaida, a port city west of Sanaa, told Human Rights Watch that about two dozen armed men in civilian clothes who said they were acting on behalf of Ansar Allah forced their way into his company’s offices on March 11. They left after three hours, but the next day an Ansar Allah leader in Hodaida told him that his outlet could no longer broadcast unless he pledged to “not broadcast any content critical” about Ansar Allah.

The Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate has reported that Ansar Allah fighters beat at least 10 journalists, cameramen, and photographers as they covered protests between January 25 and February 25, arbitrarily detaining seven of them for various periods, and seized and smashed cameras. The Freedom Foundation, a Yemeni group that monitors press freedom, reported at least 49 attacks on the media in January.

In 2013, Human Rights Watch reported in “‘A Life-Threatening Career’: Attacks on Journalists under Yemen’s New Government” that Yemenis had gained greater freedom of expression since Hadi replaced Ali Abdullah Saleh as president in February 2012, but that this had also brought a rise in threats and violence against the media by various political groups, including Ansar Allah, Saleh supporters, and state security forces.

“These latest attacks on journalists and the media are one indicator of the desperate state of affairs in Yemen,” Stork said. “Basic security will only get worse until there’s a government in place capable of restoring the rule of law and respect for human rights.”