Gunmen Clash with Tunisian Security Forces

Clashes erupted on Tuesday between gunmen and security forces in northwestern Tunisia, near the Algerian border, official media reported.

"Clashes are currently taking place in the Gam Halfaya area of Tajerouine (in the Kef region), between an armed group consisting of six members and units from the army and national guard," the TAP news agency quoted a security source in the region as saying.

"Security reinforcements have been deployed in the area, which has been surrounded in order to detain the members of this group," the source added, referring to the gunmen as "terrorists."

No details were given on casualties, and the interior ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Since the uprising that toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, radical Islamists suppressed under the former dictator have become increasingly assertive, and have been blamed for a wave of deadly attacks across the country.

The authorities claimed in December to have broken up an Al-Qaeda recruitment cell and arrested 16 suspected members just days after a policeman was killed in clashes with gunmen in the Kasserine border region.

Last month, leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid was gunned down outside his home in the capital, in a killing blamed by the authorities on radical Islamists.