TUNIS — The freshly banned jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia was planning a series of political assassinations in Tunisia in its effort to establish an Islamic emirate in North Africa, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday, Aug. 28.

The ministry disclosed Ansar’s plans one day after Prime Minister Ali Larayedh declared it a terrorist organization and said the state now had proof the militants had killed two secular politicians and several soldiers this year.

Ansar al-Sharia is the most radical Islamist group to emerge in Tunisia since secular autocratic ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in 2011, and poses a test to the authority of the moderate Islamist-led government.

“This organization, which was collecting large quantities of weapons, planned to spread chaos and create a security vacuum through assassinations, before seizing power and establishing the first Islamic emirate in North Africa,” Mustapha Ben Amor, a senior ministry official, told reporters.

Among its targets were Mustapha Ben Jaafar, chairman of the assembly, writing a new constitution, former Foreign Minister Kamal Morjan, Amer Larayedh, a senior official of the governing Islamist party Ennahda, and several journalists, he said.