Beheaded Tunisian shepherd’s brother killed — reports

TUNIS — The brother of a shepherd whose beheading by extremists outraged Tunisia has himself been found dead after being abducted, media reports and the defence minister's spokesman said on Saturday.

Khalifa Soltani was kidnapped on Friday in the Mount Mghilla area, and a security sweep recovered his body after a "terrorist group" announced his abduction, Belhassen Oueslati told AFP.

The Daesh terror group claimed responsibility, according to the SITE Intelligence Group which monitors extremist organisations.

It quoted the Daesh Amaq agency as saying the man killed on Friday was a "spy... who worked for the benefit of the Tunisian intelligence on Mount Mghilla".

Oueslati did not provide further details about the victim, but media reports said he was the brother of Mabrouk Soltani, a 16-year-old shepherd who was decapitated on November 13, 2015.

The Tunisian branch of Daesh, Jund Al Khilafa (soldiers of the caliphate), claimed that killing, accusing the boy of betraying their movements to the army.

The circumstances of the latest death were not immediately known.

Nessma television said Khalifa Soltani's body was taken to a hospital in the central Kasserine region for an autopsy.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed has called for a manhunt for the perpetrators and asked Defence Minister Farhat Horchani to head to the area, the channel said.

The leftist Popular Front, meanwhile, called for a demonstration later Saturday in Tunis "to denounce terrorism" and show solidarity with the Soltani family.

His killing comes less than a week after a top extremist was shot and six others arrested in the Kasserine region's Mount Salloum area near the border with Algeria.

The interior ministry said on Tuesday the six belonged to "sleeper cells" of Jund Al Khilafa.

It also said the extremist killed on Sunday had belonged to the Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion which is linked to Al Qaeda, and not to Daesh as it had previously said.

Since its 2011 revolution, Tunisia has experienced an increase in extremist attacks that have cost the lives of dozens of members of the security forces and 59 foreign tourists.