Tunisia PM in sweeping cabinet reshuffle: government

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid announced Wednesday a major cabinet reshuffle, as his government grapples with a growing jihadist threat and a feeble economy.

The foreign and interior ministers were among those replaced in the shake-up, according to an official list.

The interior ministry had already seen several personnel changes at lower levels following a suicide attack in the capital in November that killed 12 presidential guards.

The authorities imposed a nationwide state of emergency after the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings, has been plagued by Islamist violence since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Two other attacks last year claimed by IS on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis and on a hotel near the Mediterranean resort of Sousse killed a total of 60 people, all but one of them foreign tourists.