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| Tunisia police clash with Salafists over meeting ban | |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| Tunisian police have clashed with hundreds of hardline Islamists whose group was prevented from meeting. | |
| Violence broke out in the central city of Kairouan and in the capital Tunis. | |
| The government last week said it had barred the Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia from holding its annual congress in Kairouan, saying it posed a threat to public security. | |
| The group urged its supporters instead to gather for the meeting in the Tunis suburb of Ettadhamen. | |
| Some 500 supporters were reported to have gathered in Ettadhamen, erecting barricades and hurling stones at police who responded by firing tear gas and shooting into the air. | |
| Tear gas was also reported to have been used in Kairouan, as Salafists threw stones at the police from behind the wall of a mosque. | |
| The government on Friday said it was banning Ansar al-Sharia from gathering in Kairouan because it had "shown disdain for state institutions, incited violence against them and poses a threat to public security". | |
| Ansar al-Sharia used its Facebook page to say it was moving its congress to Ettadhamen. | |
| The governing Ennahda party was elected following the overthrow of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. | |
| It governs in coalition with two non-religious parties and has promised not to ban alcohol or impose the veil. | |
| But Salafists want stricter Islamic laws imposed in Tunisia, and are demanding the introduction of Sharia. |