TABARKA, Tunisia — With 16 soldiers and national guard agents injured while hunting for an extremist group in Tunisia's mountainous border area, the country is witnessing its most dangerous confrontation with Islamist violence to date.
Underscoring the seriousness of the threat, the interior minister confirmed on May 8 that the group being pursued was affiliated with the Oqba Ibnou Nafaa Militia, part of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and that among its two dozen or so fighters were some who had returned from the Islamist insurgency in Mali.
