Nearly 50 Common Criminals Escape in Tunisia Jailbreak

Local Editor

Forty-nine inmates escaped from a Tunisian prison after overpowering guards, a senior official said Monday, in a further sign of faltering security as a political crisis over popular discontent with an-Nahda rule festers.

The North African state, fount of the Arab uprisings of 2011, is locked in a standoff between its government and opposition that could be decisive for the success of its experiment in democracy.

Prisons Director-General Habib Sboui said 49 inmates broke out of the prison in the town of Gabes Sunday evening, and that 12 were recaptured a little later.
"They escaped in an ambush in which guards were assaulted, without any shooting," Sboui said in a statement. It was believed the escapees were all common criminals, he said.

Still, the breakout attested to the deteriorating security that has been exploited by extremist militants with a series of attacks, two of which resulted in the killing of two opposition secular politicians that triggered the political crisis.
Tunisia has jailed hundreds of militants over the past year in connection with attacks.

Interpol issued a global security alert on Aug. 3 advising its 190 member states to increase vigilance against attacks after a series of prison breaks in Pakistan, Iraq and Libya, some pulled off with the help of al-Qaeda.

In July, more than 1,000 inmates escaped a prison near Benghazi in eastern Libya, a stronghold of extremists.
In 2011, thousands of prisoners escaped in Tunisia during the nationwide disorder that followed the fall of autocratic President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

This comes as instability has worsened as militants have stepped up attacks. They killed eight soldiers in an ambush in July, one of the deadliest attacks on Tunisian security forces in decades.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team