Tunisian women have travelled to Syria to wage "sex jihad" by comforting Islamist fighters battling the regime there, Interior Minister Lotfi ben Jeddou has told MPs.
"They have sexual relations with 20, 30, 100" militants, the minister told members of the National Constituent Assembly on Thursday.
"After the sexual liaisons they have there in the name of 'jihad al-nikah' -- [sexual holy war, in Arabic] -- they come home pregnant," Ben Jeddou told the MPs.
He did not elaborate on how many Tunisian women had returned to the country pregnant with the children of jihadist fighters.
Jihad al-nikah, permitting extramarital sexual relations with multiple partners, is considered by some hardline Sunni Muslim Salafists as a legitimate form of holy war.
The minister also did not say how many Tunisian women were thought to have gone to Syria for such a purpose, although media reports have said hundreds have done so.
Hundreds of Tunisian men have also gone to join the ranks of the jihadists fighting to bring down the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
However, Ben Jeddou also said that since he assumed office in March, "six thousand of our young people have been prevented from going there" to Syria.
He has said in the past that border controls have been boosted to intercept young Tunisians seeking to travel to Syria.
Former Mufti of Tunisia Sheikh Othman Battikh said in April that 13 Tunisian girls "were fooled" into travelling to Syria to offer their sexual services to rebels fighting to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The mufti described the so-called “sexual Jihad” as a type of “prostitution.”
“For Jihad in Syria, they are now pushing girls to go there. 13 young girls have been sent for sexual jihad. What is this? This is called prostitution. It is moral educational corruption,” the mufti was quoted as saying.
Reports attribute the fatwa to Saudi sheikh Muhammad al-’Arifi.
In August, general director of public security service in Tunisia Mostafa Bin Omar said that a “sexual jihad cell” had been discovered and dispersed in an area west of the country known for its concentration of al-Qaida fighters.
Bin Omar said that al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar Shariah was offering minor girls with their faces covered as sexual offerings for jihadist fighters.