Salafi Islamists, police clash in Tunis

Hundreds of Salafi Islamists, angered by an art exhibition they say insults Muslims, clashed with police in Tunis on Tuesday, raising religious tensions in the home of the Arab Spring.

Protesters blocked streets and set tyres alight in the working class Ettadamen and Sidi Hussein districts of the capital overnight, hurling petrol bombs at police in some of the worst confrontations since last year's revolt ousted Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and began the Arab Spring.

An Interior Ministry official told Reuters 86 people had been detained overnight and seven members of the security forces had been wounded as they tried to quell the rioting by using tear gas and firing into the air.

By morning, protests had spread to a number of residential districts, with young men preventing trams from passing through the Intilaqa district of the capital, where shops remained closed. There was evidence of looting in some areas, where shop windows were smashed. (...)