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Tunisia: Police Arrest Three Prominent Officials of Ennahda Party

Security vehicles outside Rached Ghannouchi's house in Tunis. (AFP)
Security vehicles outside Rached Ghannouchi's house in Tunis. (AFP)
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Tunisia: Police Arrest Three Prominent Officials of Ennahda Party

Security vehicles outside Rached Ghannouchi's house in Tunis. (AFP)
Security vehicles outside Rached Ghannouchi's house in Tunis. (AFP)

Tunisian police arrested three prominent officials of the main opposition Ennahda party on Tuesday, hours after they detained party leader Rached Ghannouchi, the most prominent critic of President Kais Saied, a lawyer and officials said.

Lawyer Monia Bouali told Reuters that the officials arrested are Mohamed Goumani, Belkacem Hassan and Mohammed Chnaiba. Officials in Ennahda confirmed the arrests.

Police raided Ennahda party headquarters early on Tuesday and evacuated all present to start a search that will take days, after showing a judicial warrant, party officials said.

Police have this year detained leading political figures who accuse Saied of what they call a coup after closing the elected parliament in 2021 and his move to rule by decree before rewriting the constitution.

The earlier arrests, that have led to charges of conspiring against state security, have drawn statements of concern from the U.S. and rights groups.

An interior ministry official said Ghannouchi had been brought in for questioning and his house searched on the orders of the public prosecutor investigating "inciting statements".

Ghannouchi's lawyers said that they had no idea about the course of investigations.

For its part, the party announced on Monday in a Facebook post that Ghannouchi had been taken to an “unknown destination” without respecting the basic legal procedures and said it “condemns this very dangerous development.”

It demanded releasing him immediately and halting the arrest of opposition politicians.

The statement also urged the “free people” to stand united against these oppressive practices that violate the rights and freedoms of the opposition politicians.

Ghannouchi said in an opposition meeting on Saturday, "Tunisia without Ennahda, without political Islam, without the left, or any other component, is a project for civil war".

The 81-year-old, who was in exile in the 1990s and returned during Tunisia's 2011 revolution that brought democracy, said those who "celebrated the coup are extremists and terrorists".

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Kurdish Fighters Leave Northern City in Syria as Part of Deal with Central Government

A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
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Kurdish Fighters Leave Northern City in Syria as Part of Deal with Central Government

A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)

Scores of US-backed Kurdish fighters left two neighborhoods in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo Friday as part of a deal with the central government in Damascus, which is expanding its authority in the country.

The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh, which had been under the control of Kurdish fighters in Aleppo over the past decade.

The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast. The deal could eventually lead to the merger of the main US-backed force in Syria into the Syrian army.

The withdrawal of fighters from the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) came a day after dozens of prisoners from both sides were freed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that government forces were deployed along the road that SDF fighters will use to move between Aleppo and areas east of the Euphrates River, where the Kurdish-led force controls nearly a quarter of Syria.

Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh had been under SDF control since 2015 and remained so even when forces of ousted President Bashar al-Assad captured Aleppo in late 2016. The two neighborhoods remained under SDF control when forces loyal to current interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa captured the city in November, and days later captured the capital, Damascus, removing Assad from power.

After being marginalized for decades under the rule of the Assad family rule, the deal signed last month promises Syria’s Kurds “constitutional rights,” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades.

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes. Thousands of Kurds living in Syria who have been deprived of nationality for decades under Assad will be given the right of citizenship, according to the agreement.

Kurds made up 10% of the country’s prewar population of 23 million. Kurdish leaders say they don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament. They want decentralization and room to run their day-to day-affairs.