Tunisia

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Tunisian police clash with hardline Islamists, one killed
By Tarek Amara, Reuters
11 April 2013

Police fired on Islamists attacking a police station in a southern Tunisian town, killing one person, a security source said, in the latest incident to raise religious tensions in the North African country.

Hundreds of Salafists – followers of a puritanical interpretation of Islam – protested in front of the police station in Hergla on Thursday after officers arrested some of their comrades who had attacked alcohol sellers in the city, police and witnesses said.

“Police fired bullets on the Salafists who attacked a police station in Hergla town and tried to burn it down, killing one person and wounding others,” a security source said. (read more)

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A protestor holds a portrait of slain Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid, during a demonstration to mark 40 days since his death, in Tunis, Saturday, March 16, 2013. (Amine Landoulsi/AP Photo)

Arab Spring faces cold, hard reality in Tunisia — where it all began
By Jamie Dettmer, FoxNews.com
20 March 2013

In Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began after a vendor set himself on fire to protest the government two years ago, the populace is growing disenchanted with the transition to democracy and an economy left in ruins by the regime change.

Social disruption, dramatic declines in mining and tourism and the Feb. 6 assassination of popular leftist leader Chokri Belaid, who was gunned down outside his home in the capital apparently by hard-line Islamists, known as Salafists, have all contributed to a darkened atmosphere inside the birthplace of the Arab Spring. There’s a sullen resentment at the failure of the Islamist government — it is ruling with two secular center-left parties – to move the economy on. (read more)

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Street vendors demonstrate against the government after the death of a cigarette vendor who torched himself in a street died in Tunis, Wednesday, March 13, 2013. Adel Khadri who set himself alight on Tuesday in a street of the capital Tunis died from the severe burns he suffered, a medical official said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Amine Landoulsi)

AP Interview: Tunisia PM to Crack Down on Violence
By Bouazza Ben Bouazza, Associated Press
13 March 2013

Tunisian lawmakers approved a new government Wednesday, and the new prime minister vowed the leadership will end violence upending the North African nation’s bid to move from revolution to democracy with tough measures against religious radicals and others who resort to violence.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said that respect for the law and for state institutions “will be our credo.”

He said the new interior minister, Lotfi Ben Jeddou, will take firm measures in coordination with the military to end crime on all levels, including arms trafficking across Tunisia’s border with Libya. He did not elaborate on the measures. (read more)

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US Oders Some Diplomats out of Sudan, Tunisia
CBS News
17 September 2012

Tunisian police and army vehicles surround the U.S. Embassy, a day after several thousand demonstrators angry over a film that insults the Prophet Muhammad stormed the compound, Tunis, Tunisia, Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012. Tunisia’s governing moderate Islamist party condemned an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis and the neighboring American school, saying Saturday that such violence threatens the country’s progress toward democracy after decades of dictatorship. (read more)

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 For earlier articles, please see the “Archived Updates” section on Tunisia’s page.

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