Tunisia opposition leader shot dead

Tunisian opposition politician Chokri Belaid has been shot dead outside his home in the capital, Tunis.
Relatives say Mr Belaid was shot in the neck and head on his way to work.

He was a prominent secular opponent of the moderate Islamist-led government and his assassination has sparked protests in towns around the country.

President Moncef Marzouki has cut short a visit to France and cancelled a scheduled appearance at a summit in Egypt to return home.

Tunisia is gripped by a political crisis as talks on a long-awaited cabinet reshuffle to include a wider range of parties in a coalition led by the Ennahda party have broken down.

Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said his murder was an "act of terrorism" and a blow to the country's Arab Spring revolution, which took place in January 2011.
"This is a criminal act, an act of terrorism not only against Belaid but against the whole of Tunisia," Mr Jebali told Tunisia's privately owned FM Radio Mosaique, promising to pursue all efforts to "immediately" arrest the murderer.

Correspondents say political assassinations are rare in Tunisia.
According to AFP news agency, people ransacked the premises of the Ennahda party in Mezzouna, a town in the centre of the country, in protest at the news of Mr Belaid's death.

In Tunis, crowds have gathered outside the interior ministry chanting they want a "second revolution", the BBC's Sihem Hassaini in the city says.

"More than 4,000 are protesting now, burning tyres and throwing stones at the police. There is great anger," Mehdi Horchani, a Sidi Bouzid resident, told Reuters news agency.

Sidi Bouzid was the town where the revolution that toppled Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali from the presidency began a little more than two years ago.

It is not known who is responsible for the attack on the politician.

President Marzouki was to participate in the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation on Thursday and is instead returning directly from his visit to Strasbourg because of the killing.

Mr Belaid was the co-ordinator of the left-leaning Democratic Patriots party, part of a group of opposition parties which has been challenging the government since it came to power following the country's first post-Arab Spring election in October 2011.

"This murder robs Tunisia of one of its most courageous and free voices," French President Francois Holland said in a statement.

On Saturday, Mr Belaid accused "mercenaries" hired by the Ennahda party of carrying out an attack on a Democratic Patriots meeting.

The Paris-based France 24 TV station has reported that Mr Belaid reportedly received recent death threats.
It said that he died in hospital after being shot by "three men in a black vehicle".

"My brother was assassinated. I am desperate and depressed," Mr Belaid's brother Abdelmajid Belaid told AFP.

Correspondents say that although Mr Belaid's party did not have a large share of the election vote, it spearheaded popular concern over the rising level of political violence in Tunisia.