Tunisian Combat Group

The Tunisian Combat Group (TCG) or Tunisian Fighting Group was a loose network of terrorists who aspire to install an Islamist government in Tunisia.[1] Its personnel are said to be in Western Europe and, formerly, in Afghanistan, where it was affiliated with al-Qaeda.[2][3][4] In the United States TCG has been designated as a terrorist group under the Patriot Act as of 20 December 2004.[5]

A cofounder of Tunisian Combat Group, Tarek Ben Habib Maaroufi, provided the forged Belgian passports by which the assassins of Ahmed Shah Massoud travelled to Afghanistan. He is serving a sentence in Belgium.

Another cofounder of TCB, Saifallah Ben Hassine (also known as Abu Iyadh al-Tunisi), went on to found the militant Islamist Ansar al-Sharia in his native Tunisia in 2011,[6] after his release from prison in the March 2011 general amnesty that followed the Tunisian revolution. Turkish authorities had arrested him in 2003, after which they extradited him to Tunisia; Ben Ali’s regime sentenced him to 43 years of imprisonment.[7]

A number of the detainees held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba, remain in detention, in part, because American intelligence analysts allege they were members of the Tunisian Combat Group.

Foreign Relations

Designation as a terrorist organization

Countries and organizations below have officially listed the Tunisian Combat Group as a terrorist organization.

Country Date References
 Israel [8]

References

  1. ↑ "The TCG". Overseas Security Advisory Council (USA). Archived from the original on 28 December 2005.
  2. ↑ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Lufti Bin Ali Administrative Review Board - page 19
  3. ↑ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Riyad Bil Mohammed Tahir Nasseri Administrative Review Board, 27 April 2005 - page 5
  4. ↑ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Ridah Bin Saleh Al Yazidi Administrative Review Board, 4 May 2005 - page 51
  5. ↑ "Terrorist Exclusion List". Overseas Security Advisory Council (USA). 29 December 2004. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  6. ↑ "Al Qaeda ally orchestrated assault on US Embassy in Tunisia". Long War Journal. 2 October 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  7. ↑ icct.nl: "Raising the Stakes: Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia’s Shift to Jihad", Feb 2014
  8. ↑ http://www.justice.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/9C960928-70AB-428A-BCCC-2E6091F2BDE3/40880/impa_terror_eng_17012013.doc
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