Tunisia shutting border with Libya for 15 days

By AFP

Libya

NOV 25, 2015 LISTEN

A Tunisian policeman mourns November 25, 2015, as he carries the coffin of a member of the presidential guard killed in a bomb blast on a bus in central Tunis the previous day. By Fethi Belaid (AFP)

Tunis (AFP) - Tunisia announced Wednesday it is closing its land border with war-torn Libya for 15 days after a deadly bus bombing in Tunis claimed by the Islamic State group.

The National Security Council, headed by President Beji Caid Essebsi, decided to close the frontier from midnight with "reinforced surveillance of maritime borders and in airports", a statement said.

Thousands of Tunisians have travelled to Libya, as well as to Iraq and Syria, to fight alongside Islamic extremists, according to the authorities.

The council also decided to "step up operations to block (Internet) sites linked to terrorism", the statement said.

And authorities would "take urgent measures regarding people returning from hotbeds of conflict, in line with the antiterrorist law," it added, without elaborating.

The council also announced the government would recruit 3,000 additional agents at the interior ministry next year, as well as another 3,000 soldiers.