Tunisian security forces have shot dead a suspected militants in the country's northwest near the border with Algeria, the interior ministry announced on Thursday.

"National guard units overnight gunned down a terrorist element in Seddin forest, in Sakiet Sidi Yussef," it said in a statement.

The ministry said the suspect was killed in an ambush laid for two militants riding a motorbike and that the other man was wounded but escaped.

A Kalashnikov assault rifle and two bags filled with explosives were seized, it said.

Tunisia has been hit by a wave of jihadist violence that has killed dozens of members of the security forces since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Last year, the Islamic State militants group (IS) claimed attacks on the Bardo museum in Tunis and a resort hotel, that killed 59 tourists in total, and a suicide bombing on a bus that killed 12 presidential guards.

A raid in March on the Libyan frontier town of Ben Guerdane, blamed on IS group, left 20 people dead.