26/07/2013 09:58
Tunisian opposition leader shot dead outside his home
A Tunisian opposition leader was fatally shot outside his home Thursday, setting off protests in a nation still raw from the February assassination of a different politician who opposed the Islamist-led governing party, CNN reported.
The slaying of Mohammed Al-Brahmi and the public's reaction are the latest bout of turmoil striking the North African country that had been seen as a poster child of stability after the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
Al-Brahmi, a member of Parliament and leader of the liberal Popular Movement, was shot as he tried to drive away from his home in Ariana, near the Tunisian capital of Tunis, the state-run news agency TAP reported.
Afterward, thousands of people protested the killing outside the Interior Ministry in Tunis on Thursday, according to Tunisian state TV.
Presidential spokesman Adnene Mansar called the incident a "heinous crime" and urged Tunisians not to fall into a "trap of discord."
Thursday's protest may be just the beginning. A labor union called for a general strike for Friday, TAP reported.
"(Al-Brahmi's death) is likely to reactivate the mass protests and strikes across multiple sectors," Anna Boyd, a senior Middle East analyst at IHS Country Risk, said in an e-mailed statement Thursday before news of the day's protests came.