Suspect Arrested in Murder of Tunisian MP
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Tunisian security forces arrested a suspect in the murder of opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi after a fierce gunbattle during an overnight raid on a militant hideout, the interior ministry's spokesman said on Sunday.
Brahimi was the second of two opposition politicians to have been assassinated last year by suspected jihadists as violence rocked the North African country, which was the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolutions in 2011.
The security forces "surrounded a house (near the capital Tunis) where a terrorist group had holed up. Following a sustained exchange of fire, four elements were arrested," interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told AFP.
"Among them is Hmed el-Melki, alias 'Somali,' one of the elements implicated in the assassination of the martyr Mohamed Brahmi," he said, adding weapons were seized during the raid.
"The interior ministry stresses that it was a successful operation," the spokesman said without revealing the identities of the other suspects.
The announcement came after the government said Tuesday that the suspected assassin of opposition politician Chokri Belaid had been killed in a police raid.
Gunmen killed Belaid on February 6 and Brahmi on July 25, both of them outside their homes.
Authorities blamed the murders on the Ansar Al-Sharia, a jihadist outfit accused of links to Al-Qaeda, but the group never claimed responsibility for those or any other attacks.
