Tunisian security forces have dismantled a 13-member “terrorist cell” that was funneling young recruits to ‘jihadist’ groups, authorities said Wednesday, as part of a growing crackdown on extremists.

The suspects, aged between 22 and 43, were arrested on Tuesday in Hergla, a town north of the coastal resort city of Sousse, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Members of the cell held “secret meetings in a mosque” and admitted to recruiting and sending 12 youths to fight with ‘jihadist’ groups abroad, it said, linking it to the Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion, a group connected to Al-Qaeda.

It was the seventh announcement in less than a week of arrests of alleged “terrorists” in Tunisia, which has detained more than 70 people in a widening crackdown on ‘jihadists’ since December 25.

Authorities stepped up their efforts after Tunisian Anis Amri was identified as the primary suspect in last month’s attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people.

Amri was shot dead by police in the Italian city of Milan four days after the attack, which was claimed by the ISIL group.

Source: AFP