Middle East Today: Tunisia --- Clashes as Salafist Conference Banned

See also Turkey Snap Analysis: Will Syria & Reyhanli Protests Undermine the Government?
Syria Today: The Battle for Qusayr
Sunday's Middle East Today: Iraq --- Deadliest Day in More than 8 Months

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Iraq: Prime Minister Responds to Car Bombs

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said, in the wake of this week's violence killing more than 200 people, "We are about to make changes in the high and middle positions of those responsible for security, and the security strategy."

"We will discuss this matter in the cabinet session tomorrow (Tuesday) to take decisions," Maliki said, without providing further details. "I assure the Iraqi people that they (militants) will not be able to return us to the sectarian conflict."

Iraq: Death Toll Rise from Car Bombs

The death toll from today's car bombs is now at least 68, with 195 injured.

Photo: Reuters

More than 200 people have been slain in the past week.

The heaviest-hit area today was Baghdad, where ten car bombs hit open-air markets and other areas of Shia neighbourhoods, killing at least 47 people and wounding more than 150.

Iraq: Car Bombs Kill At Least 40

Car bombs in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra have killed at least 40 people, hitting markets and crowded bus stops during morning rush hour.

In the Iraqi capital, nine car bombs in Shia areas killed 27 people and wounded 116.

The deadliest attacks were in the northern Sabi al-Boor neighborhood and in Baghdad’s eastern suburb of Kamaliya.

In Basra, two car bombs at a restaurant and at the city’s main bus station killed at least 13 people and wounded 40.

Tunisia: Clashes After Authorities Ban Salafist Conference

Thousands of police and soldiers clashed with demonstrators at the main religious centre in the central city of Kairouan after the Government banned the annual conference of the Salafist organisation Ansar al-Sharia.

One protester died and several were injured amid security checkpoints and patrols. Protesters threw stones at police, who fired tear gas in response.

Kairouan hospital reported that five civilians and four policemen were injured. The State news agency reported that a 27-year-old was killed and 11 policemen wounded.

Authorities had refused a permit for the conference, calling it a threat “to security and public order".

In Ettadamon, a suburb of the capital Tunis, police fired tear gas and shots into the air to disperse about 500 stone-throwing protesters, some of whom set fire to cars, lowered the Tunisian flag, and replaced it with a black Islamist banner.