6 cops killed in Tunisia

At least six members of Tunisia's security forces were killed yesterday in an ambush in the northwest of the country close to the border with Algeria.

State news agency TAP said nine had died, while the interior ministry put the initial death toll at six.

One of the Arab world's most secular nations, Tunisia became a target for militants after being hailed as a beacon of democratic change with an uprising against autocrat Zine Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Some militants operate in remote areas near the border with Algeria, which has been fighting the remnants of a major Islamist insurgency in the 1990s.