Tunisia policeman shot dead in Sousse

TUNIS - A Tunisian policeman was shot dead Wednesday by two assailants on a motorbike in the coastal resort of Sousse where a militant killed 38 tourists in June, a senior security official said.

"Unknown assailants fired on three policemen on a road. One of them was hit and died in hospital," Rafik Chelly, secretary of state for national security, told AFP.

"An investigation is under way. We can't say any more," said Chelly, without being able to clarify if the attack was the work of a militant.

The assailents used a rifle for the attack, the Associated Press quoted Sahbi Jouini, a police official, as saying.

The incident took place seven kilometres (five miles) from Sousse, he said, adding police were hunting the assailants who fled.

Wataniya television, the national broadcaster, said the two other policemen targeted in the town of Sousse were wounded.

The targeted policemen were waiting by the side of the road for a ride to a town in central Tunisia, according to the television station.

The attack came less than two months after a militant killed 30 Britons and eight other foreign tourists on a beach in Sousse, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Tunisia has been under a state of emergency in the wake of the 26 June massacre which followed an attack by gunmen on the Bardo museum in Tunis that killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman.

IS also claimed responsibility for the 18 March museum attack, and extra troops have been posted at tourist sites since the beach killings.

Tunisia has since its 2011 revolution faced an upsurge in extremist violence that has cost the lives of dozens of soldiers and police, with most attacks claimed by al-Qaeda's North African branch.