(TAP) - The security operation carried out Sunday in Sidi Bouzid is a successful proactive operation, given the dangerousness of the individuals who were killed, said Sofiene Selliti, deputy public prosecutor at the Court of First instance in Tunis and spokesman for the Counter-Terrorism Judicial Division.

Selliti told TAP on Monday the Algerian-born terrorist (born in 1987), who had blown himself up after being surrounded by security forces, is a leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade.

"He proved to be an expert in the manufacture of explosives, who was wanted by the police for his involvement in previous terrorist attacks," he added.

As for the second terrorist, who was shot and killed after a firefight with the security units, he was born in 1996. He is a Tunisian national and lives in Sidi Bouzid. The individual is involved in the Sidi Ali Ben Aoun attack in which six National Guards fell as martyrs, including Socrates Cherni.

The spokesperson for the Judicial Counter-Terrorism Division said the Public Prosecutor ordered at a late hour on Sunday to detain five individuals, including the owner of the house.

Two Kalashnikov weapons, three grenades, a large quantity of ammunition and four homemade bombs were seized, he added.

A terrorist blew himself upon on Sunday in a flat on the second floor of a building near the southern entrance to the town of Sidi Bouzid (265 kilometers south of Tunis), first delegate of Sidi Bouzid, Sami El Ghabi had told TAP correspondent in the region on Sunday.

In a statement to the TAP on Sunday evening, Colonel-Major Khalifa Chibani, official spokesman for the National Guard, said National Guard units had been monitoring for several weeks the movements of terrorist elements holed up on the heights of Mount Salloum and Mount Chaâmbi, in the governorate of Kasserine. They were "in connection with individuals from the city of Sidi Bouzid", he said.

Once the preparations had been completed and all arrangements had been made, National Guard units had carried out a proactive operation in a Sidi Bouzid neighbourhood in which "dangerous" terrorists, leaders of the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, were killed.