Attack on mountain posts kills 14 Tunisia soldiers

In the heaviest army death toll since Tunisia declared its independent in 1956, assailants attacked Tunisian soldiers on two posts near the border with Algeria, killing 14, the government said on Thursday.

The attack, which also wounded 20, occured in an area where the army has been waging a crackdown on militants since late 2012, the government said Thursday.

President Moncef Marzouki declared three days of national mourning on Thursday and government spokesman Nidhal Ouerfelli condemned what he called a "heinous act".

Defence ministry spokesman Lamjed Hamami told reports that the army "is determined to continuing its fight against terrorism whatever the sacrifices, for the benefit of our nation," defence ministry spokesman Lamjed Hammami told reporters late on Wednesday.

The attacks came almost a year to the day since Tunisian soldiers were ambushed in the same region of Mount Chaambi, where the army has been hunting down a group with links to al-Qaeda.

Eight soldiers were killed in the attack on 29 July last year which happened just days after the assassination of opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi in Tunis, causing a political crisis in the country.

Last month, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM) for the first time claimed responsibility for recent attacks in Tunisia, including an assault in May on the home of the interior minister that left four security guards dead.

The 27 May attack on the home of Lotfi Ben Jeddou, in the western Kasserine region, killed four policemen.

Since late 2012, Tunisia's security forces have been battling militants hiding out in the Mount Chaambi and Kef regions and thought to be linked to AQIM.

Tunisia has been rocked by militant violence in the mountainous region since the 2011 revolution that toppled a decades-old dictatorship and touched off uprisings in many countries across the region.

Authorities say they have gained the upper hand in the fight against militants active along the Algerian border, while acknowledging the campaign to root them all out will take time.