KUIN and JAK-T have achieved only limited success in undermining the Tunisian state. Nearly all of the groupsвЂ™ fighters are Tunisian, recruited from throughout the country. Attacks overwhelmingly target security and defense forces, the groups maintain a permanent territorial presence, and they have worked to build support among the local populations. The nature of the conflict in TunisiaвЂ™s northwest differs from the countryвЂ™s other security challenges in that it mirrors an insurgency rather than a protracted terrorist campaign. More than 200 security and defense personnel have been wounded, a figure that comprises the majority of casualties suffered by those forces since the revolution. At least 127 militants and 118 soldiers, national guardsmen, and police officers have been killed in the northwest. Over seven years, the Tunisian Army, the National Guard, and police forces have been locked in a bloody fight against two jihadi groups: Katiba Uqba ibn Nafi (KUIN), affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and the Islamic StateвЂ“linked Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia (JAK-T). These dramatic incidents have largely overshadowed a more violent and protracted conflict in TunisiaвЂ™s northwestern governorates. Additionally, the conflict next door in Libya poses a persistent danger, a reality underscored in 2016 when militants with the self-proclaimed Islamic State staged a raid on a Tunisian city on the border. Multiple terrorist attacks have killed foreign tourists, Tunisian civilians, and security personnel. Since the 2011 revolution, Tunisia has faced the difficult task of sustaining a democratic transition amid rising security challenges.

Insurgency 2014