Suspected Islamist gunmen have killed four policemen at the family home of Tunisia's interior minister, with officials describing the attack as "revenge" for progress in the fight against jihadists.
The overnight assault on Lotfi Ben Jeddou's home at Kasserine, in the western border region, was reminiscent of violence in 2013, when two politicians were assassinated and jihadists killed 20 security force members.
"We went into this battle knowing what to expect," Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa told reporters.
"They might hurt us, but they won't prevail. We will defeat them," he added as the president declared a day of national mourning.
The assault by about a dozen gunmen shortly before midnight left dead four policemen and wounded two, interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told AFP on Wednesday.
"The terrorist group had infiltrated from Mount Salloum to target the house of the interior minister," Aroui said on national television.
The mountain, which neighbours Mount Chaambi on a range bordering Algeria, had been declared a military zone in April as the authorities moved to tighten the noose around jihadists.
According to a security official in Kasserine, the four policemen were in a garage next to the house, where they were ambushed and killed.
Two other policemen, who had been outside and exchanged fire with the assailants, were wounded and hospitalised, according to the same source.
One of them, Walid Mansour, told Mosaique FM radio that attackers had arrived in a vehicle and shouted "Allahu akbar!" (God is greatest) before opening fire.
It was not immediately clear who, if anyone, was in the house at the time of the attack.
The minister himself normally stays in the capital while his wife and children live in Kasserine.
The attack has sparked concern among Tunisians notably about how the gunmen managed to reach the minister's house without being stopped and despite security reinforcements around Mount Chaambi.
Tunisia is emerging slowly from a period of upheaval linked to violence blamed on Islamist militants following the 2011 revolution that toppled a decades-old dictatorship and touched off the Arab Spring.
