Tunisian security forces exchange fire with gunmen

Security forces exchanged fire with besieged militants in Jabal Al-Hamra area, Sidi Bouzid province, central Tunisia, Friday evening. The forces laid a siege on the area at 4:00 p.m. today in a bid to round up suspected militants, the state TAP news agency reported. The details of the encounter and the possible casualties have yet to be known. Earlier today the Ministry of Interior said that eight "terrorists," five men and three women, have been arrested during a security operation going on since Thursday in the village of Om Laadham, in the same province. The security operation aims to bring to justice the perpetrators of the terrorist attack which claimed the lives of several members of the National Security Guard on October 23, the ministry said in a statement. Today's arrests brought to 19 the total number of captured militants accused of involvement in the terrorist attack. Three young men - two students and a worker, were arrested in the northeastern province of Nabeul under the charge of affiliation to a radical religious group