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At least 5 Tunisia soldiers dead after militant attack


    TUNIS (Reuters) - At least five Tunisian soldiers were killed after gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles attacked military checkpoints in the Mount Chaambi area, where the army has been conducting an operation to flush out Islamist militant fighters, the TAP state news agency and a defense official said on Wednesday.

    Since April, thousands of Tunisian troops have been deployed to the remote Chaambi area near the Algerian border, where a small group of militants have been holed up, some since the French military operation drove al Qaeda-affiliated fighters out of Mali last year.

    (Reporting by Tarek Amara in Tunis; Writing by Patrick Markey)