IS fighters threaten to kill secular Tunisian politicians

Islamic State fighters claimed responsibility on Thursday for the murder of two secular Tunisian politicians in 2013 that plunged the country into crisis, warning of more killings just days before a presidential run-off election.

"Yes, tyrants, we're the ones who killed Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi," Abou Mouqatel, a dual French national wanted for their murders, said in a video released on the Internet.

Belaid was assassinated in front of his home on 6 February, while Brahmi was killed a few months later on 25 July. Their murders plummeted Tunisia into a political crisis that eventually forced Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, the secretary-general of the Ennahda party, to resign. Ennahda is often seen as Tunisia's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, although the party was born out of very specific local circumstances.

It was not clear where the video was filmed, but Abou Mouqatel claimed they were in an area under the control of IS, which has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq.

"We are going to come back and kill several of you. You will not have a quiet life until Tunisia implements Islamic law," added the militant, whose real name is Boubakr al-Hakim.

Tunisian authorities had previously blamed the Ansar al-Sharia, a radical Salafist group formed in April 2011, of being behind the murders, but had little evidence.

Abou Mouqatel appeared along with three other fighters, all of them dressed in combat uniform and carrying arms, with black IS banners waving behind them.

"Our message to the tyrants of Tunisia and to their soldiers is this - between us there will [only] be weapons."

Interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui responded by saying: "Tunisians are stronger than these terrorists. They mean nothing to us."

Abou Mouqatel, born in Paris in 1983, is considered to be one of the key people organising the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq, where he himself has travelled to fight. 

He was jailed in France for seven years in 2008, but given early release in 2011. 

The authorities in Tunis estimate that as many as 3,000 Tunisians have gone to Iraq and Syria to fight with extremist groups including IS, and have expressed concern that some will return to carry out attacks at home.

On 21 December, Tunisians are set to vote in the second round of the presidential election. Nidaa Tounes’ leader 88-year-old Beji Caid Essebsi faces off Moncef Marzouki, the interim president of Tunisia since 2011. The first round on 23 November saw Essebsi win 39 percent of the vote.