Tunisia says gang smashed last week were Islamists

TUNIS, Jan 12 (Reuters) A criminal gang broken up by Tunisian security forces in a shoot-out last week were radical Islamists who infiltrated from Algeria, Tunisia's interior minister said today.

''It concerns a group of terrorist Salafists who infiltrated (Tunisia) via the Algerian border,'' Rafik Belhadj Kacem was quoted by official news agency TAP as saying at a gathering of governing party officials.

''During the investigation, they found images of sites of some foreign embassies. They also confiscated documents containing a few names of foreign diplomats living in Tunisia and a quantity of traditional explosives.'' A government source said last week that security forces shot dead 12 criminals and arrested 15 near Tunis after a rare gunbattle in the normally peaceful North African country.

REUTERS BDP BD2339