Tunisia stand-off ends with 8 dead

A day-long standoff ended on Tuesday when Tunisian security forces stormed two houses occupied by militants, killing seven.

Police stand guard near a house in Raoued, a northern suburb of the capital Tunis on February 4, 2014. A gun battle erupted late on Monday when police surrounded the house in Raoued in an attempt to arrest a group of suspected militants hiding there. Anis Mili/ReutersShow less

TUNIS // Tunisia’s National Guard stormed suspected militants in two houses in a seaside suburb of Tunis on Tuesday to end a day-long standoff, and seven radicals and one member of the security force were killed.

The firefight began on Monday afternoon when National Guard anti-terrorist units surrounded a house believed to contain militants in the Raoued suburb, said interior ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui.

He described the militants as members of an ultraconservative sect of Islam, known as Salafis, who are increasingly at odds with the state.

Radical Islamists also have been implicated in the shooting deaths of two left-wing politicians in 2013.

In a final shoot-out on Tuesday afternoon, seven militants and one member of the anti-terrorist unit were killed, a security official said. He did not say whether any of the radicals were arrested.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Hundreds of masked members of the antiterror units flooded Raoued during the standoff, filling its streets with armoured vehicles. Snipers were seen on the roofs of the buildings around the besieged area.

Sahbi Jouini, a member of the law enforcement union, said the militants had been holed up in two adjacent houses, one of which was stormed by the masked antiterror units early in the morning on Tuesday.

After Tunisians overthrew their secular dictatorship in 2011, the conservative Salafi movement took a hostile attitude to the new postrevolutionary government for not being pious enough. Last year its largest such group, Ansar Al Sharia, was declared a terrorist organisation.

The violence comes as Tunisians prepare to mark the one year anniversary of the assassination of prominent Tunisian opposition figure Chokri Belaid.

On February 6, 2013, Tunisians were stunned to learn of the death of the 48-year-old lawyer and leftist politician who had been a fierce critic of Ennahda, the Islamist party that rose to power after the first Arab Spring uprising toppled a long-ruling dictator.

Belaid was gunned down at close range outside his house, with the authorities blaming militants from Ansar Al Sharia.

It was the first of two political assassinations last year that fuelled rising unrest and eventually forced Ennahda to step down in January under a deal to end the crisis.

Sandwiched between Algeria, birthplace of Al Qaeda’s North African branch, and Libya, a source of weapons following its civil war, Tunisia has had to deal with the rising threat of armed militants.

Nearly every month, there is news of a shoot-out between security forces and militants, many of whom have smuggled in weapons from Libya.

* Associated Press