Bomb Blast Wounds Six Tunisia Security Force Members

Tunis: Six members of the Tunisian security forces were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded on Tuesday in the mountainous Kef region near the Algerian border, the interior ministry said.

"A roadside bomb exploded as a military vehicle passed by, wounding four soldiers and two members of the National Guard," it said.

At the time, the security forces were combing the mountains in the provinces of Kef and neighbouring Jendouba "where the remnants of a terrorist group is holed up," the ministry added.

A policeman was wounded in a similar blast Sunday.

Since late 2012, security forces have been battling jihadists hiding out in the remote western region.

Earlier this month, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb for the first time claimed responsibility for an attack in Tunisia, which has been rocked by Islamist violence since the 2011 revolution that toppled a decades-old dictatorship and touched off the Arab Spring.

The May 27 attack on the home of the interior minister, Lotfi Ben Jeddou, in the western Kasserine region, killed four policemen.

Tunisian authorities say they have gained the upper hand in the fight against militants active along the Algerian border, while admitting that the campaign to root out all the jihadists will take time.