Five women among six militant suspects killed in Tunisia

One gunman and two children in hospital after security forces raid home in Tunis to end 24-hour standoff.

Residents of the Oued Ellil suburb of Tunis cheer Tunisian soldiers after their successful raid against suspected militants on October 24, 2014. Aimen Zine / AP Photo

TUNIS // Six people were killed after Tunisian security forces raided a home on Friday to end a standoff with a suspected Islamist militant group two days before a general election.

The dead included five women who were described as terrorists by the interior ministry.

The authorities have expressed fears that “terrorists” will seek to disrupt Sunday’s vote. Tens of thousands of soldiers and police will be deployed for the parliamentary polls, the first under Tunisia’s new constitution adopted this year.

Islamists suppressed under former strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have proliferated since his overthrow in 2011.

Militants have been blamed for a wave of attacks, including last year’s assassination of two leftist politicians whose murders plunged the country into a protracted political crisis.

A gunman was among the dead in Friday’s raid on a house in a suburb of Tunis, while another was hospitalised along with two children, interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said.

One of the children, a girl, had suffered a head injury.

Authorities had earlier demanded that the children and women be allowed to leave the house, giving the gunmen an ultimatum to surrender.

“Special forces approached the kitchen where the terrorists were hiding,” Mr Aroui said.

“The women came out of the kitchen firing,” he said, describing both the men and women at the house as “terrorists”.

He did not say whether the suspects were thought to be an isolated cell or part of a larger group.

Militants claiming allegiance to Al Qaeda’s north African affiliate have been active in Tunisia since the 2011 revolution.

The house in Oued Ellil was surrounded on Thursday following the arrest of two other suspected militants in Kebili, 500 kilometres south of the capital.

A policeman was killed the same day in a firefight with the suspects in Oued Ellil and another was wounded.

The operation in the suburb was launched based on information extracted from the two suspects detained in Kebili for killing a private security guard, the authorities said.

Tunisia announced a three-day closure from Friday of the border with Libya for fear of possible election day attacks.

The polls are seen as crucial to restoring stability in the nation, the cradle of the Arab Spring revolutionary movements.

Political parties were wrapping up campaigning on Friday while Tunisians overseas began voting.

The vote will be followed by a presidential election on November 23.

Militants have killed dozens of soldiers and police over the past three years, especially in remote mountain areas on the Algerian border.

On Monday, interior minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou said the authorities had foiled plots to bomb factories and attack foreign missions.

Rached Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia’s moderate Islamist movement Ennahda, said the country’s transition to democracy served as an example of how to defeat extremists such as ISIL.

“The success of the Tunisian experience is in the international interest, especially in the fight against extremism and the fight against Islamic State and similar groups,” he said.

“One of the best ways to fight terrorism is to advocate moderate Islam because terrorism is based on an extremist interpretation of Islam,” said Mr Ghannouchi, whose party has emerged as the leading political force in Tunisia since the fall of Ben Ali.

Sunday’s election pits Ennahda against an array of secular groups, including Nidaa Tounes, whose leader Beji Caid Essebsi has criticised Ennahda as anti-democratic.

Between 2,000 and 3,000 Tunisians are reported to have gone to join ISIL and other extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Tunisian authorities fear some will return to destabilise the country.

* Agence France-Presse