TUNIS: Tunisia’s security forces led a counterterrorism sweep in a mountainous central region Friday and killed five suspected extremists even as Western governments were calling their nationals home from a country they deem unsafe.

Tunisian Interior Ministry spokesman Walid Louguini told the Associated Press that a gunfight erupted Friday morning as a special national guard unit chased eight suspected extremists in the Ouled Bouomrane area. He said the operation was ongoing.

The army and national guard operation came a day after Britain’s government urged all U.K. tourists to leave Tunisia because an extremist attack is “highly likely,” saying the North African country hasn’t done enough to enhance security.

Thirty British tourists were among 38 victims killed by an Islamic extremist at beach resort in coastal Sousse on June 26.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid, speaking in a parliamentary debate, said his government “did everything in our power to protect [British] citizens and their interests, as well as those of all other countries.”

The government has carried out 7,000 security operations since the museum killing, arresting 1,000 people and stopping 15,000 young people from traveling to fight abroad, Essid said, and was working to remedy “shortcomings.”

“Our country is going through a delicate situation, and is in danger,” he said.

U.N. experts said Friday that almost 5,500 Tunisians are fighting alongside extremists abroad, urging Tunis to adopt a “national strategic plan” to curb the flow.

“The number of Tunisian foreign fighters is one of the highest among those traveling to join conflicts abroad such as in Syria and Iraq,” said Elzbieta Karska, current head of a U.N. working group on the use of mercenaries.

“Sophisticated travel networks operate to take recruits across the porous borders, and sometimes through areas where trafficking in people and illicit goods may not be effectively controlled,” Karska said after an eight-day mission to Tunisia.

“Testimony has documented that the routes taken entail travel through Libya, then Turkey and its border at Antakya, and then Syria,” she said.

Karska also pointed to possible links between mercenaries and foreign recruits to groups such as ISIS battling in Iraq and Syria.

“It was reported to us that recruiters in these networks are well paid – one figure given is that of $3,000 to $10,000 per new recruit, depending on the person’s qualifications,” she said.

She added that an estimated 4,000 Tunisians were in Syria, between 1,000 and 1,500 in Libya, 200 in Iraq, 60 in Mali and 50 in Yemen. Around 625 who have returned from Iraq are being prosecuted, she said.

Many Western European tour operators suspended trips to Tunisia following the Sousse killings.

France’s Foreign Ministry Friday urged its citizens in Tunisia to be “particularly vigilant” but stopped short of urging departures. Germany, two of whose citizens died in the Sousse shooting, made no immediate change to its travel advice.

Ireland, Denmark, Belgium and Finland all discouraged citizens from non-essential travel to Tunisia.

Such decisions are a new wound for Tunisia’s struggling tourism industry and for the nation’s reputation as it tries to solidify its new democracy in a volatile region. An attack on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis in March left 22 dead, mostly foreign tourists.

Hotels in the resort of Hammamet were largely empty of foreign tourists Friday.

At one, the swimming pool glistened in the Mediterranean sun, unperturbed by swimmers.

British Embassy officials were helping Friday with departures of British tourists at the Enfidha airport, but would not talk about the ramifications of the government’s warning.

The head of the Islamist party Ennahda’s group in parliament, Noureddine Bhiri, called the British decision “manifestly damaging to Tunisia and its democratic process.”

A French diplomat said French, British and German governments will work with Tunisia, notably in improving airport security and protecting tourist sites and foreign companies. The diplomat, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, said Western experts would meet next week in Tunis to discuss security measures.

Myles Roberts, a 37-year-old Londoner, arrived in Tunisia Wednesday for a one-week trip. He said he was “reluctant to leave” but had no other way to get back home because Thomas Cook made plain that there would be no flights out after Sunday.

He said Britain’s call for travelers to return was tantamount to giving in to terrorism.

“We had IRA [Irish Republican Army] for 40 years, and we had 7/7,” Roberts said, referring to attacks in London that killed 52 subway and bus passengers on July 7, 2005. “It’s very safe here. ... The security is higher than usual but that is expected.”