Protesters force Tunisia leaders away from slain police ceremony

Angry members of the security forces on Friday drove Tunisia's President Moncef Marzouki and Prime Minister Ali Larayedh away from a memorial ceremony for two slain policeman, an AFP photographer said.

The security force members, some of them in uniform, shouted "Get out" at the Tunisian leaders, obliging them to leave the official ceremony at the military barracks in the Tunis suburb of L'Aouina.

Marzouki and Larayedh, as well as parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar, left after about 20 minutes of jeers from the crowd, without any of them addressing the gathering.

"We won't accept the presence of politicians," shouted one of the protesters, who carried placards demanding laws to protect the police.

Only the interior minister, Lotfi Ben Jeddou, was able to attend the ceremony for the two men killed on Thursday by an armed group in the Neja region, 70 kilometres (40 miles) west of Tunis.

"We are all against terrorism. This is a war, and we will not give up," he said in a brief speech.

Earlier, the interior ministry spokesman said security forces had killed several members of the group suspected of carrying out Thursday's attack, which also left one policeman wounded.

Security force unions have organised several demonstrations in recent months to condemn the lack of resources made available to battle Tunisia's jihadist movement, which has been on the rise since the 2011 revolution.

But this is the first time police representatives have directly blamed Tunisia's top leaders, who normally attend memorial ceremonies for police and soldiers killed in combat.

Since December, security forces have been tracking a group of militants allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda in the Chaambi mountain region along the Algerian border, with some 15 soldiers and police killed in the operations.

Despite air strikes and a major military offensive launched in July, the militants remain active, with clashes reported as recently as last weekend.

The interior ministry says Abou Iyadh, the leader of Tunisia's main Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia, and those suspected of killing opposition politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi this year are holed up in the region.

Tunisia was plunged into political crisis in July when Brahmi was shot dead by suspected jihadist gunmen, in circumstances similar to Belaid's murder six months earlier.

The ruling Islamist party Ennahda, which shot to power in 2011 parliamentary polls, is blamed by the opposition for failing to rein in the country's jihadist movement.