Tunisia's Islamist Prime Minister Ali Larayedh vowed firm action against Ansar al-Sharia, in remarks published Monday, after bloody clashes between police and members of the radical Salafist group.

But the group's fugitive leader Abu Iyadh insisted, in a message posted online, that his followers could not be defeated despite their "persecution."

Tunisia has been rocked by waves of violence blamed on militant extremists since the January 2011 revolution, and Larayedh reacted angrily to the latest unrest.

At least one protester was killed and 15 police hurt. Ansar al-Sharia and a police source said a second protester was also killed, but the interior ministry said his death was not linked to the clashes, while the Salafists insisted neither victim belonged to their movement.

Larayedh said 200 members of Ansar al-Sharia had been arrested and vowed firm action against the movement considered close to Al Qaeda and which he linked for the first time to "terrorism."

"This group is engaged in violence, is opposed to the state and revolts" against the authorities, Larayedh was quoted as saying on Monday by Arabic daily Al-Hayat, while on a visit to Doha.

But Ansar al-Sharia's leader, a former Al Qaeda fighter in Afghanistan whose real name is Saif Allah Bin Hussein, was defiant in his five-minute message, apparently taped before Sunday's violence. "God knows well that I would like to have been with you at the moment when you opened a shining page in the history of our nation. You have shown the entire world that your efforts cannot be defeated despite the persecution of your leaders," he said.

The Salafists' third annual congress was to be held on Sunday in the holy city of Kairouan. But the government banned the gathering and deployed a heavy security contingent in Kairouan, prompting Ansar al-Sharia members to gather in the Tunis suburb of Ettadhamen where Sunday's fighting erupted.

AFP