Tunisian forces clashed with unidentified gunmen at the country's border with Libya overnight Saturday, the official TAP news agency said, with several casualties reported.
Reinforcements were sent to the site of the fierce fighting in the village of Douz, about 500 kilometres south of the capital Tunis, and cordoned off the area, DPA reported.
A resident of the village sounded the alarm late Friday after seeing several vans with armed men. The gunmen's vehicles did not have license plates.
The unrest in the Arab world began in Tunisia late last year, with a popular revolt that toppled then-president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, sparking a wave of pro-democracy uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East.
In recent weeks, Tunisia's border regions have been facing a spillover effect from the conflict in neighbouring Libya, where rebels have been fighting for the ouster of long-time leader Moamer Gaddafi.
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