Tunisia lifts curfew on capital imposed after deadly bombing

Tunis (AFP) - Tunisia is to lift a curfew imposed in the capital and suburbs after a deadly November bus bombing claimed by the Islamic State group, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

The midnight to 5:00 am curfew will end at midnight on Saturday, a statement said.

It had already been shortened from a 9:00 pm start at the beginning of December, allowing some respite for shopkeepers and cafe owners hit by a loss of business in a city of more than one million people that usually bustles at night.

Following the November 24 suicide attack that killed 12 presidential guards, the government also declared a 30-day nationwide state of emergency and closed the border with Libya, where investigators believe the bombing was planned.

The border was reopened on Thursday night, but the state of emergency remains in place.

Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings, has been plagued by Islamist violence since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, with three IS-claimed attacks this year alone.

The earlier attacks -- at the capital's National Bardo Museum and on a hotel near the Mediterranean resort of Sousse -- killed a total of 60 people, all but one of them foreign tourists.