Clashes this week between Tunisian soldiers and an armed group that crossed the border from Algeria left six dead among the infiltrators, a western diplomatic source said Friday.
"According to our reports, six attackers were killed," the source said, while the Tunisian ministry of defence said one body had been found so far.
The fighting took place on Wednesday when the Tunisian army neutralised an armed convoy of nine vehicles fitted with anti-aircraft guns that crossed over from the Algerian desert near Bir Znigra.
"For the moment, one body has been found and a team of specialists and a forensic doctor have been sent to the site," an official in the ministry of defence told AFP.
"But there are probably several dead among the infiltrators," the official added, stating that traces of bodies dragged through the sand had been found. A vehicle not spotted by the Tunisian army could have picked up the dead and wounded and taken them back to Algeria, he said.
According to the diplomatic source, seven attackers were taken prisoner and the group was probably made up of Algerians and Libyans.
A regional security source who asked not to be named said that "it was about a score of heavily armed terrorists of Ql-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) who attacked the Tunisian troops."
"At this stage, we have no details on the identity of the group. It could be AQIM, it could be a band of armed smugglers. It is too early to identify these men with any certainty," the official in the Tunisian defence ministry said.
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