TUNIS — Tunisia has arrested 12 people, one of them a woman, who were trying to cross into lawless Libya to join a “terrorist group”, the Interior Ministry said. After attacks on tourists by militants, Tunisia is especially concerned about those entering from Libya. Chaos created by two rival Libyan governments battling for control has enabled Daesh (so-called IS) to establish a toehold there. Security forces arrested the 12 at a bus stop in the southern town of Ben Guerdane near the border with Libya, the ministry said in a statement late on Friday. “The suspects said that they had been planning to cross into Libyan territory with the help of a smuggler,” it said. Tunisia made a largely peaceful transition to democracy after a 2011 popular uprising toppled president Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali. But its army has been fighting a rise in militancy. — Reuters
