By Rachid Karoui
TUNIS
A Tunisian policeman was killed and another wounded on Thursday in an exchange of fire with a "terrorist" group hiding in a home in Oued Ellil, a city of the northern province of Manouba, Tunisia's Interior Ministry said.
"We feel sorry for the death of one of our National Guard (a Tunisian police unit) heroes," Interior Ministry spokesman Mohamed Aroui said in a press briefing.
He noted that the wounded policeman had received medical treatment at the site of the confrontation with the "terrorist" group.
"Our troops continue to besiege the home where the terrorist elements hide," Aroui added, even without mentioning the number of the militants hiding or whether there any civilians inside the besieged house.
He said, however, that security agencies had conducted negotiations with the militants so that they would release civilians in their custody, but the militants had refused to do this.
Policemen, meanwhile, arrested two "terrorist elements," while a civilian was killed in another security operation in the southwestern province of Kebili, Aroui said.
He added that the operation was launched upon intelligence information about a "terrorist" plot by the detained militants.
He said that these "preemptive" operations aimed to send assurances to the Tunisian people ahead of the parliamentary elections.
Tunisians are due to go to polling stations across the country on Sunday to select members of the new parliament, the first following the 2011 uprising that ended the autocracy of longstanding president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
