Tunisia Battles Islamic State: Police Bust Three ISIS Terrorist Cells Luring Fighters To Libya

Police in Tunisia broke up three splinter groups that were recruiting Islamic State group fighters to join militants in other Muslim-majority countries in the region, the Tunisian Ministry of Interior said. Eleven people suspected of trying to join the groups in Libya were arrested.

Tunisia has been on the offensive against possible Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, attacks and recruitment since gunmen killed 21 tourists at a Tunis museum in March, and a lone gunman shot dead 38 foreigners at a Sousse beach hotel in June. ISIS had claimed responsibility for both attacks.

"The National Guard counterterrorism unit dismantled three cells, which sent young people to Libya," the Interior Ministry said in statement late Monday, according to a Reuters report. Officials have said that the attackers at the museum and the resort were trained in jihadi camps over the border in Libya, where militants have grown in numbers and in strength.

Tunisia last week seized two car bombs and weapons on the border with Libya. The government also began building a wall along the border to stop militants slipping across. The wall was expected to cover about a third of the 310-mile border and would be completed by the end of the 2015, Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said in July.

Government officials have said that more than 3,000 young Tunisians have left to fight for ISIS in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Some of them have threatened to return home and carry out attacks on Tunisian soil, officials have said, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, foreign nations have advised citizens to leave Tunisia and avoid travel to the region. The British government in July announced that intelligence suggested another terrorist attack in the country was imminent. At that time, approximately 2,500 to 3,000 British tourists were believed to be in Tunisia on holiday.