Gunfire echoed in the streets of Tunis yesterday as authorities prepared to announce a new government.
An opposition leader said the government would definitely be announced today and would exclude parties close to the disgraced former President, who fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday after a wave of protests against his regime.
“There has been a consensus decision to exclude the pro-governmental parties,” Maya Jribi, head of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was “encouraged” by the vows of Tunisia's Prime Minister and interim President to usher in a new era of a “truly representative government”.
Meanwhile, officials said they had arrested the general in charge of Mr Ben Ali’s security apparatus, Ali Seriati, for plotting against the new leadership. Mr Ben Ali’s nephew, Kais Ben Ali, was also arrested earlier yesterday along with 10 others in the central town of Msaken – the Ben Ali family’s ancestral home – overnight for “shooting at random” from police cars during the night. The developments came as Tunisia’s main parties held talks on forming a national unity government following the abrupt departure after 23 years in power of Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia after a wave of protests against his regime.
In central Tunis, security forces exchanged fire with unidentified attackers hidden inside buildings, AFP reporters said. The shooting kicked off after an exchange of fire outside the headquarters of the main opposition party.
The Tunisian army also launched an assault yesterday against supporters of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali holed up inside the Presidential palace on the outskirts of Tunis, a security source said.
“The army has launched an assault on the palace in Carthage where elements of the presidential guard have taken refuge,” the senior source said on condition of anonymity. Another witness said she had seen “at least two helicopters flying over the presidential grounds”.
Around 1,500 protesters meanwhile held a peaceful rally in the town of Regueb in which they slammed the political talks in the capital saying the new government would not be truly democratic, a local trade union leader said. The army broke up the rally as protests are banned under the rules of a state of emergency declared in the country on Friday.
Representatives of two parties banned under Mr Ben Ali – the Communist party and the Islamist Ennahdha party – were excluded from the government talks. The head of Ennahdha, Rached Ghannouchi, who lives in exile in London, said earlier that he now intended to return to Tunisia.
“There are major food shortages. We don’t have enough bread and flour. We risk a food crisis if this continues,” a Tunisian woman said.
Imed Trabelsi, a nephew of the wife of former President Ben Ali, was stabbed and died on Friday – the same day that the President fled the country, a hospital source said.