Tunisia appeared to tip towards all-out chaos on Sunday evening as fierce gun battles exploded in the heart of the capital, with the military attempting to root out thousands of well-armed militia loyal to the ousted dictator Zine Abidine Ben Ali. Two days after Ben Ali abandoned his 23-year rule and fled the country, forced out by an extraordinary month-long popular revolt, the street battles topped a tautly tense weekend, in which the country seemed perched between armed conflict and near-normality.
As sun set on downtown Tunis, machine-gun fire exploded on the streets outside my hotel, amid office and apartment buildings, cafes and train stations. Shortly before, soldiers had ordered hotel guests inside and cordoned off several blocks of the city center, before unleashing a no-holds-barred battle with the armed militia prowling the streets. The battle began with small arms fire and was then followed with the sound of heavy automatic fire. One hour into it, police aligned with the military burst into the rooms of hotel guests, ordering us to close curtains, for fear of attracting the attention of military snipers hanging from the open doors of two helicopters circling overhead. Masoud Ramdhani of Tunisia's League of Human Rights said by telephone that the military was attempting to corner about 3,000 of the 6,200 of Ben Alis well-armed Presidential Guard still not arrested. The gunfire around the hotel only began to die down towards 8 p.m., two-and-a-half hours after it had begun. Meanwhile, wire reports had a fierce battle taking place in front of the presidential palace in Carthage, about 10 miles away.
TIME | 16 Jan 2010 - read full report
