One Soldier, Militant Killed In Tunisia Political Turmoil
https://nigeriaafrica1.blogspot.com/2013/08/one-soldier-militant-killed-in-tunisia.html
Tunisian police shot dead an Islamist militant in Tunis and a soldier was killed in a blast near the Algerian border on Sunday, as the government grappled with growing security and political crises in the country.
There has been a surge in Islamist militant attacks over the past two weeks in the North African country, and on Friday security forces launched heavy air and artillery strikes on militant hideouts in the Mount Chaambi area near the Algerian border.
At the same time the secular opposition, angered by the assassination of two of its leading members and emboldened by Egypt's army-backed ousting of its elected Islamist president, is seeking to topple its own moderate Islamist-led government.
Tens of thousands of Tunisians came out in a show of force for the ruling Ennahda party on Saturday. The opposition has pledged to rally even more supporters in its own demonstration later on Sunday.
One soldier was killed and seven others were wounded in a landmine that hit their tank as they combed an area in Mount Chaambi where militants killed 8 soldiers earlier this week, in the deadliest attack on Tunisian forces in decades.
In the capital Tunis, interior ministry official Lotfi Hidouri police raided a house where militants were hiding weapons in the Kabaria district. "The police killed a terrorist and arrested five others," he said.
Witnesses said police also arrested several hardline Salafists suspected of ties to militant groups in the town of Sbitla, north of the capital.
One witness said dozens of Salafists then gathered at the police headquarters in Sbitla to protest against the arrests and that the police fired in the air to disperse them.
At the same time the secular opposition, angered by the assassination of two of its leading members and emboldened by Egypt's army-backed ousting of its elected Islamist president, is seeking to topple its own moderate Islamist-led government.
Tens of thousands of Tunisians came out in a show of force for the ruling Ennahda party on Saturday. The opposition has pledged to rally even more supporters in its own demonstration later on Sunday.
One soldier was killed and seven others were wounded in a landmine that hit their tank as they combed an area in Mount Chaambi where militants killed 8 soldiers earlier this week, in the deadliest attack on Tunisian forces in decades.
In the capital Tunis, interior ministry official Lotfi Hidouri police raided a house where militants were hiding weapons in the Kabaria district. "The police killed a terrorist and arrested five others," he said.
Witnesses said police also arrested several hardline Salafists suspected of ties to militant groups in the town of Sbitla, north of the capital.
One witness said dozens of Salafists then gathered at the police headquarters in Sbitla to protest against the arrests and that the police fired in the air to disperse them.
