Brother of decapitated Tunisian shepherd killed

TUNIS // The abducted brother of a shepherd whose beheading by extremists outraged Tunisia has been found dead. Khalifa Soltani was kidnapped on Friday in the Mount Mghilla area, and a security sweep recovered his body after a terrorist group announced his abduction, said Tunisia’s defence ministry.

ISIL claimed responsibility for the murder, said the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist organisations.

It quoted ISIL as saying that Soltani was a “spy who worked for the benefit of the Tunisian intelligence on Mount Mghilla”.

The government gave no further details about the victim, but media reports said he was the brother of Mabrouk Soltani, 16, a shepherd who was beheaded on November 13, 2015.

The Tunisian branch of ISIL claimed they had carried out that killing, accusing the boy of betraying their movements to the army.

The circumstances of Khalifa’s death were not known.

Tunisian television said the body was taken to a hospital in the central Kasserine region for a post mortem examination.

Prime minister Youssef Chahed has demanded that the perpetrators be hunted down and asked defence minister Farhat Horchani to go to the area.

Meanwhile, the leftist Popular Front called for a demonstration in Tunis yesterday “to denounce terrorism” and show solidarity with the Soltani family.

The latest killing came less than a week after a top militant was shot and six arrested in the Mount Salloum area near the border with Algeria.

The interior ministry said the six belonged to sleeper ISIL cells and the dead militant had belonged to a group which is linked to Al Qaeda.

Since the revolution in Tunisia in 2011, extremist attacks have increased, killing dozens of members of the security forces and 59 foreign tourists.

The country has been under a state of emergency since 2015.