Five militants who were killed by Tunisian forces near the Libyan border had slipped across with the intention of carrying out "terrorist attacks", Prime Minister Habib Essid said on Thursday.

Five militants who were killed by Tunisian forces near the Libyan border had slipped across with the intention of carrying out "terrorist attacks", Prime Minister Habib Essid said on Thursday.

In a statement on his official Facebook page, Essid paid tribute to the army and national guard units who had eliminated the "terrorist cell sent in from Libya."

He did not elaborate on the identities of the five militants but said that their killing on Wednesday evening had "foiled the terrorist operations the cell was planning."

One civilian was killed by a stray bullet during the assault on a house outside the town of Ben Guerdane near the border. An army commander was also wounded.

Explosive vests, improvised grenades and a large quantity of munitions were recovered from the slain militants, the interior ministry said.

Six foreign passports were also found, it said without elaborating.

Troops had been on alert after receiving reports that militants had slipped across the border over the past three days in response to a US air strike on an ISIL group training camp in Libya on February 18 that targeted a senior Tunisian commander.