Tunisia orders crackdown after militants kill 14 soldiers

Tunisia on Saturday launched a crackdown on mosques and radio stations associated with hardlineIslamists after militants killed 14 soldiers in an area near the country's border with Algeria. The move underscores the difficulty one of the Arab world's most secular countries faces in dealing with the rise of conservative Islamist movements and militants since the 2011 revolt that ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and opened the way to democracy. Tunisia's armed forces have been carrying out a campaign to flush out militants from their remote hideout in the Chaambi mountains on the border with Algeria. Some of the militants are tied to al-Qaida and 14 soldiers were killed this week when dozens of gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades attacked two army checkpoints. It said the government would also order the closure of radio stations, websites or TV stations that publish messages from militant groups.