Salafists in Tunis for banned meet clash with police
TUNIS (AFP) - Clashes broke out between radical Islamists and police on Sunday after Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia told its followers to gather "in large numbers" near Tunis for its annual congress, defying a government ban.
Hundreds of Salafists erected barricades in the streets of Ettadhamen, a poor neighbourhood 15 kilometres (9 miles) west of Tunis, and hurled rocks at police who responded with tear gas, an AFP journalist reported.
The security forces used armoured cars and bulldozers to destroy the barricades and gain access to Ettadhamen, which is considered a stronghold of the Salafist movement in conflict with the government.
The Islamists retreated to the neighbouring district of Intilaka where clashes continued, with the police finally appearing to take control.
The interior ministry said 11 policemen and three Salafists were wounded, according to a preliminary toll.
One policeman and one of the protesters were said to be in serious condition. An officer at the scene earlier said there were five injuries among police ranks.
Ansar al-Sharia had planned to hold Sunday its annual congress in the central city of Kairouan, the country's religious capital, but the government banned the meeting and the Islamists decided to move it to Ettadhamen.
Salafists advocate an ultra-conservative brand of Sunni Islam, and Ansar al-Sharia does not recognise the authority of the state.
"We consider that our congress was held in Ettadhamen," Ansar al-Sharia official Sami Essid told AFP.
He was speaking after the hardline Islamist group called on its followers "to gather in large numbers" in the Tunis suburb, in a message posted on its Facebook page.
In Kairouan there were only brief clashes during which the security forces fired tear gas at stone-throwing Salafists who shouted insults at the police.
The Salafists had insisted all week they would hold their third annual congress despite the ban, and warned they would hold authorities responsible for any violence, raising fears of a bloody showdown.
An AFP journalist and Tunisian media reported the arrests of Salafist militants in Kairouan and other cities, with Ansar al-Sharia's spokesman Seifeddine Rais arrested at dawn on Sunday, according to a police source.
A resident of Ettadhamen said hundreds of Ansar al-Sharia supporters poured into the district, a Salafist stronghold, some armed with sticks and knives and waving the black flag of their movement.
In the marketplace they chanted "we are going to Ettadhamen."
Tunisia has been rocked by attacks blamed on militant Islamists since the uprising that toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and Ansar al-Sharia is considered the most radical of the extremist groups that emerged after the 2011 revolution.
The government, led by moderate Islamist party Ennahda, has hardened its stance towards the extremists in recent months, announcing in early May that two groups the army is pursuing in the western region bordering Algeria are linked to Al-Qaeda.
A top Al-Qaeda chief urged Tunisia's Salafists to shun government provocation in order not to lose public support, the US-based SITE monitoring service said on Sunday.
"Don't you ever be provoked by the regime and its barbarism to do rash acts that might spoil your blessed popular embrace," said Abu Yahya al-Shanqiti, a member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's sharia committee, was quoted as saying.
Confirming its decision to ban Sunday's meeting, the interior ministry said last week that it posed a threat to public order.
Ennahda has been strongly criticised since coming to power in late 2011 for being too lenient towards the Salafists and for failing to stop them carrying out attacks around the country, notably one on the US embassy in September that left four Islamists dead.
Ansar al-Sharia's fugitive leader, Saif Allah Bin Hussein, a former Al-Qaeda fighter in Afghanistan, warned earlier this month that he would wage war against the government, accusing it of policies in breach of Islam.