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Tunisia has launched a crackdown on mosques and radio stations associated with conservative groups following a deadly attack on its soldiers near the Algeria border.

Tunisia’s armed forces have been carrying out a campaign to flush out fighters from their remote hideout in the Chaambi mountains.

Some of the armed groups are tied to al-Qaeda and 14 soldiers were killed last week when dozens of fighters with rocket-propelled grenades attacked two army checkpoints in the region.

“The prime minister has decided to close immediately all the mosques that are not under the control of the authorities, and those mosques where there were reported celebrations over the deaths of the soldiers,” the office of Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa said in a statement yesterday.

Meanwhile, three members of the same family were among at least 15 Britons killed in the Tunisia attack, reports said yesterday, in Britain’s worst loss of life in a terror incident since the 2005 London bombings.

As ministers warned the toll would likely rise, details began to emerge of those gunned down in Friday’s Islamist massacre at a popular beach resort.

Among the dead were reportedly 19-year-old student Joel Richards, his uncle Adrian Evans, 49, and his grandfather. Joel’s 16-year-old brother Owen survived. Other victims were named as 24-year-old Carly Lovett and a couple in their 40s, Sue Davey and Scott Chalkley. — AFP