Tunisia closes border with Libya as unrest continues

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-tunisia-closes-border-libya-20140801-story.html



A group of Egyptians fleeing violence in Libya try to enter Tunisia through the southern border crossing at Ras Ajdir on Friday.

Tunisia closes border with Libya as unrest continues
By Amro Hassan
8.1.2014

Tunisian authorities temporarily closed the country's border with Libya on Friday, stranding thousands of Egyptians eager to escape the expanding violence in Libya, Tunisia's state news agency reported.

Libyan border security forces opened fire when a crowd of about 6,000 people, most of them Egyptian, assembled at the Ras Ajdir crossing in western Libya and tried to forcibly enter Tunisia without entrance visas.

The head of the Tunisian security zone on the other side of the crossing was shot in the leg during the mayhem, the Tunisian news agency, TAP, reported. The incident came one day after two Egyptians were shot dead in a similar incident.

On Wednesday, Tunisian Foreign Minister Mohamed Hamdi said that 5,000 to 6,000 people were crossing every day as the situation in Libya worsened.