TUNIS — The United States will increase military aid to Tunisia threefold this year and help train its troops, a senior US official said on Friday, weeks after the country suffered its deadliest militant attack in more than a decade. The US government aimed to provide Tunisia with more equipment, weapons and technical support, US deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken said. “Our goal is to enhance their ability to defeat those who threaten the freedom and safety of the nation,” he told a news conference after meeting Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid. Tunisian authorities are concerned that violence will spill over from Libya too, where two rival governments and several armed groups are embroiled in a bitter power struggle four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. Blinken said the Obama administration would offer the Tunisian army training in border management, the first time it will be involved in training Tunisian soldiers. Blinken gave no figure for military aid, which he said would rise 200 percent in 2015. Another US official said last year's package amounted to $60 million. Japanese, Polish, French and Colombian tourists were among those killed in the museum attack, which Tunis said fighters from the Okba Ibn Nafaa militant group, concentrated in the Chaambi mountains bordering Algeria, were also involved in. Meanwhile, hackers claiming to be militants linked to Daesh (the so-called IS) from Tunisia took over a Belgian regional government website Friday to denounce US counter-terror operations. The economic news website of the French-speaking Walloon regional government in southern Belgium ran a video in English when accessed showing bodies said to be victims of US military action. At the end of the video, a message was read saying: “Take your heads out of the sand, struggle against your leaders, join the resistance.” Le Soir daily said on its website that the Tunisian group involved was known as the “Fallaga Team” and had hacked several French institutions shortly after bloody Islamist attacks in Paris in January, which left 17 people dead. Friday's incident came as the French authorities were coping with the fallout from a massive cyberattack against TV5Monde lasting several days. — Agencies
