Protests rock Tunis after slain opposition leader's funeral

Security forces disperse anti-government protesters with teargas in Tunis Tunis – Azhar Jarboui Protests against Tunisia's Islamist-led government erupted Saturday as thousands thronged the streets of the capital for the funeral of an assassinated leftist opposition leader, the second such murder since February. Demonstrators calling for the fall of the government marched on the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) in central Tunis and clashed with riot police who fired tear-gas to disperse them, an AFP correspondent said, adding that an opposition MP was injured by a blow to the head.
Mohamed Brahmi was shot dead Thursday outside his home in a Tunis suburb, and authorities said he was killed with the same gun used in the murder of leftist politician Chokri Belaid in February.
Two men on a moped shot Brahmi 14 times in front of his home as he was getting in his car. Belaid was killed in a similar fashion.
Brahmi's state funeral was held in the absence of any representatives of the government led by the Islamist Ennahda party.
Draped in the red and white Tunisian flag, Brahmi's coffin was saluted by soldiers as the cortège left his home in the Tunis neighbourhood of Ariana for el-Jellaz cemetery.
Emotions were high as supporters of Brahmi, who included members of his family, lifted the coffin to their shoulders before carrying it away under armed escort.
Crowds waited for the funeral procession along Mohamed V Avenue, shouting: "For our soul, with our blood, we will avenge the martyr".
A military helicopter overflew the capital as flags fluttered among the crowd waiting for the funeral procession along Habib Bourguiba Avenue, epicentre of the 2011 Arab Spring born in Tunisia.
Slogans vowing they will "avenge" Brahmi rose from the sea of mourners.
Police deployed reinforcements for the funeral attended by some 10,000 mourners, according to official estimates. Journalists gave a higher number of 15,000-20,000.
"Allahu akbar! (God is greatest). There is no God but Allah and martyrdom is his friend," mourners cried out at the cemetery.
Army chief of staff General Mohamed Salah Hamdi read the eulogy and an imam prayed, but there were no representatives from the ruling Islamist Ennahda party which the family blames for Brahmi's murder.
His widow Mbarka, who wore a headscarf, made the V-for-victory sign.
"The people want the fall of the regime," and "Ennahda terrorist gang," the crowd shouted, before falling silent for the national anthem.
The coffin was then lowered into a grave in the "martyrs'" sector of the cemetery next to that of Belaid, in accordance with his wishes.
Hours before the funeral got under way, a bomb exploded near a police post in the port of Tunis on Saturday, damaging a police jeep, the interior ministry said. A resident said the blast, the first known attack of its kind against a military vehicle in Tunisia, slightly wounded a policeman and caused panic among some residents of La Goulette district.
The families of both Brahmi and Belaid have accused Ennahda of being implicated in the deaths.
But on Friday Tunisia's interior minister accused conservative religious group Ansar al-Sharia of being behind the assassinations.
Lotfi Ben Jeddou told reporters that Salafist radical Boubaker Hakim, already being sought on suspicion of smuggling weapons from Libya, is thought to be behind the murder of Brahmi.
The minister explained that ballistic examination of the bullets fired Thursday at Brahmi showed they came from the same gun used to kill Belaid five months earlier, adding that some of the suspects involved in both murders belong to Ansar al-Sharia.
Also on Friday, thousands demonstrated against the authorities in Tunis, targeting headquarters of state institutions and security centres, in addition to the central office of the ruling Ennahda Movement.
A leading member of the Popular Front, Mohamed Belmofti, was killed in the southern city of Gafsa, and five activists were injured during clashes with security forces. The police used teargas to disperse the demonstrators.
In the northern Tunisian town of Sidi Bou Said, the birthplace of Brahmi, demonstrators took to the streets, chanting anti-government slogans.
There was also disturbance in Sfax, southeast of Tunisia, where protesters tried to storm government headquarters.
On the political front, 42 parliamentarians quit Tunisia's National Constituent Assembly (NCA), calling for the dissolution of parliament and the ruling Islamist government. They demanded the formation of an independent government, led by an independent prime minister.
On Thursday evening, President Moncef Marzouki had declared Friday as a national day of mourning, and vowed to prevent the "criminal scheme" that is to destroy the democratic process in Tunisia.
Marzouki addressed the country in a televised speech, where he condemned the crime which, he said “aims to sow discord in the country."
"We will face the security challenge and all murderers will be brought to justice," Marzouki said.
Marzouki said the assassination, which coincided with Republic Day, is not "an accident but a premeditated act aimed to destabilise the country and disrupt the political consensus that has emerged during the final phase of the process of democratic transition."
He said the aim of the killers "who have nothing to do with Islam," is to terminate the Arab Spring which has seen more success in Tunisia than in other countries.
Additional source: AFP