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Tunisian protesters clash with police in capital

by (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Click For Restrictions. http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 26 January 2011 09:58 GMT

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TUNIS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Demonstrators clashed with Tunisian police on Wednesday, as days of peaceful protests demanding a purge of former regime loyalists in an interim government descended into violence.

It was not clear how the clashes near government offices in the old city, or casbah, of Tunis began, but Reuters witnesses saw riot police use tear gas on hundreds of demonstrators, mainly teenagers and young men who threw stones.

The protesters appeared to be Tunisians from the rural regions of the Mediterranean country's deprived hinterland who have been camping out at the government compound.

They shouted at the security forces that they were "police of Leila", a reference to former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's unpopular wife Leila Trabelsi, who was seen as having extensive influence and lavish tastes.

The interim government has struggled to assert itself in the face of street protests demanding more sweeping changes after Ben Ali fled the country on Jan. 14 in the face of a popular uprising over poverty, corruption and political repression.

Tension has risen this week as many continue demonstrations and strikes while the government, backed by the army, attempts to bring the country back to normal.

In the deprived central city of Gefsa, Tunisian soldiers fired in the air on Tuesday to disperse hundreds of protesters, the first time the army has intervened since Ben Ali's departure, and witnesses said a young man set himself alight.

On Monday police also fired teargas to disperse the protesters outside the office of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who held the same post under Ben Ali, in the casbah.

(Reporting by Antonio Denti, writing by Andrew Hammond, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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