Tunisian police shot dead an Islamist militant in Tunis and a soldier was killed in a blast near the Algerian border on Sunday, as the government grappled with growing security and political crises in the country.

There has been a surge in Islamist militant attacks over the past two weeks in the North African country, and on Friday security forces launched heavy air and artillery strikes on militant hideouts in the Mount Chaambi area near the Algerian border.

At the same time the secular opposition, angered by the assassination of two of its leading members and emboldened by Egypt's army-backed ousting of its elected Islamist president, is seeking to topple its own moderate Islamist-led government.