Tunisia police use tear gas to break up Salafist demo

Siliana (Tunisia) (AFP) - Police in northern Tunisia Friday used tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting against the arrest of a group of Salafists, the interior ministry told AFP. Around 100 Salafist Islamists gathered in front of a police station in Rouhia in the northern province of Siliana to demand the release of 16 men from the town's mosque who were arrested on Monday, a security source said. Interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told AFP the 16 "radicals" arrested included "three self-declared imams, one of whom had come back from Syria". Tunisia has seen a rise in jihadist activity since the ouster of long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in a 2011 popular uprising, and the government recently vowed to take control of mosques run by radical Islamists.

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