Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Tunisia has reiterated its request for increased military
assistance from the United States.

Tunisian Defense Minister Abdul Karim Zbidi said the North African state
needed U.S. defense and military aid to help in border security. Zbidi said
Tunis also wanted Washington to help organize and equip Tunisia’s military
in wake of the ouster of President Zine Abidine Bin Ali in 2011, the start of the ‘Arab Spring’.

“The National Defense Ministry, as part of the Tunisian-American joint military committee, requested logistical support for the modernization of military equipment,” ministry official Col. Mukhtar Bin Nasser said on Feb. 17.

Zbibi’s appeal came in wake of the convening of the U.S.-Tunisian
military council in Tunis on Feb. 15. Officials said U.S. and Tunisian
officials discussed North African security, particularly the flow of weapons from neighboring Libya.

Officials said the commission focused on U.S. training and logistics
support for Tunisia’s military. They said the Tunisian delegation urged a significant increase in U.S. military aid for 2013, which has been less than $5 million per year.

Tunisia’s Army has also been clashing with Islamist militias that stem from Libya. Officials said some of the militias were believed linked to Al Qaida and operating in the southern desert as well as infiltrated the
Tunisian town of Bani Kedech.

“There is no reason for alarm,” Bin Nasser, who said the Libyan fighters
fled, said.

Bin Nasser stressed that Tunisia was also cooperating with other
regional and European Union states. The official cited Algeria, Italy and
Spain, the latter two members of NATO.

  Al Qaida, Bani Kedech, Col. Mukhtar Bin Nasser, Defense Minister Abdul Karim Zbidi, Islamic militias, One year after kicking off ‘Arab Spring’, Tunisia appeals for increase in U.S. military aid, Zine Abidine Bin Ali