Tunis: Fourteen people were killed this weekend in the deadliest incidents yet in an unprecedented wave of protests in Tunisia sparked by high food prices and unemployment, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
An opposition leader, Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, however put the death toll at "at least 20" in clashes between protesters and security forces in the neighbouring towns of Tala and Kasserine, 290 kilometres (180 miles) south of the capital Tunis, and in the town of Requeb.
Many of the country`s political parties called on President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to take urgent action and put an end to police using live rounds against protesters.
The Tunisian government meanwhile said that while protests against unemployment were "legitimate", it could not accept attacks on public property.
The clashes marked the biggest unrest to date since protests over rising food prices and rampant youth unemployment erupted in the region in mid-December.
The Interior Ministry said two people had been killed by "assailants" on Sunday in Kasserine, bringing to five the number of dead there since Saturday. Three more people, including a policeman, were seriously injured in the town.
Five people were killed in Tala, the ministry said, and four killed in Requeb, near the town of Sidi Bouzid, 265 kilometres from the capital. Many members of the security forces were injured in Requeb, the ministry said, including two who were in critical condition.
Several witnesses said the death toll could rise because of "the great number of seriously injured" in the clashes. Union members who did not want to be identified said on Sunday that up to 35 people had been killed between the two towns and Requeb.
Chebbi, the leader of the opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), appealed to Ben Ali "to call an immediate ceasefire to spare the lives of innocent citizens and respect their right to protest".
Chebbi, quoting his party`s network of sources in the towns, said funeral processions for the victims had also been fired upon on Sunday.
The Unionist Democratic Union (UDU), an opposition party considered close to the government, called for Ben Ali to take "urgent" action.
Bureau Report
