NNA - The freshly banned jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia was planning a series of political assassinations in Tunisia in its effort to establish an Islamic emirate in North Africa, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.



The ministry disclosed Ansar's plans one day after Prime Minister Ali Larayedh declared it a terrorist organisation and said the state now had proof the militants had killed two secular politicians and several soldiers this year.



Ansar al-Sharia is the most radical Islamist group to emerge in Tunisia since secular autocratic ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in 2011, and poses a test to the authority of the moderate Islamist-led government.



"This organisation, which was collecting large quantities of weapons, planned to spread chaos and create a security vacuum through assassinations, before seizing power and establishing the first Islamic emirate in North Africa," Mustapha Ben Amor, a senior ministry official, told reporters.



Among its targets were Mustapha Ben Jaafar, chairman of the assembly writing a new constitution, former Foreign Minister Kamal Morjan, Amer Larayedh, a senior official of the governing Islamist party Ennahda, and several journalists, he said.



Tunisia, which has taken an increasingly tough line against armed militants stoking uncertainty here, is struggling to save its nascent democracy amid popular discontent and the Egyptian army's ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood government there.



Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou told the news conference that dozens of arrested Ansar members had made confessions that helped the government piece together its structure and plans.



Among the evidence he showed were documents, videos and email and Skype exchanges his ministry had obtained that he said proved Ansar was loyal to al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQMI). He also displayed a diagram depicting Ansar's internal hierarchy.


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