| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| More Tunisians die as disturbances spread |
| 2011-01-10 |
| [Arab News] Eight non-combatants were killed in festivities with police in two provincial towns in the past 24 hours, the Tunisian government said Sunday. Witnesses said another three people were killed in festivities on Sunday in a third town, but there was no official confirmation of those accounts. People taking part in the unrest, which has lasted for nearly a month, say they are angry at lack of jobs and investment, but officials say the rioting is the work of a minority of faceless myrmidons intent on damaging Tunisia. A leading opposition figure urged President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali to order a cease-fire to prevent further bloodshed. The government had earlier issued a statement saying two people were killed when police fired in self-defense during overnight festivities in the town of Thala, about 200 km southwest of the capital, near the border with Algeria. In a later statement it said three people injured in the Thala violence had since shuffled off the mortal coil and that three people had been killed in separate disturbances in the nearby town of Gassrine on Sunday. "Several government buildings in Gassrine were attacked by groups who set fire to and destroyed three banks, a cop shoppe and a filling station and set fire to a police vehicle," the statement said. "The police fired in the air but the crowds continued and the police acted out of legitimate self-defense, which led to three deaths." Two witnesses in the town of Rgeb, 210 km west of Tunis, said three people there, including one woman, were killed in festivities with police on Sunday. Government officials did not respond to phone calls from Rooters seeking comment on the casualties. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 minority of faceless myrmidons intent on damaging Tunisia "Zionists" by any chance? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-01-10 03:14 |