Tunisia Photo Essay: Demonstrations and a Police Raid

On Friday, amidst the events in Egypt, we noted another significant development in Tunis, quoting two journalists:

We witnessed this afternoon how police and plainclothes stormed the demonstrators' camp at Place de Kasbah with tear gas and dogs. Very ugly scenes.

Place de Kasbah since 1700 (1600 GMT) controlled by military, all tents and installations vandalised. Also clashes between demontsrators and police in Av. Bourguiba and centre of city. Lot of tear gas. Plainclothes with sticks all around as well as groups of enraged young demonstrators armed with stones and sticks. Atmosphere tense and unclear what is going to happen next.

We added that Reuters had a brief reference to "police fir[ing] tear gas at anti-government protesters" but was far more concerned that "Islamists marched through central Tunis".

The German journalists who helped us were Thomas v. der Osten-Sacken and Bernd Baier, who work for the Weekly Jungle World. Osten-Sacken subsequently sent us a series of shots which put the day in context: