Tunisia said Tuesday it has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in eight regions of the country including the capital Tunis after rioting blamed on ultra-conservative Salafist Muslims.

The curfews take effect from 9 pm to 5 am and cover areas in the southeast and northeast of the country including the greater Tunis region, the defense and interior ministries said in a joint statement.

Tunisia's justice minister condemned as terrorism Tuesday a spate of overnight attacks on government offices by gangs including Islamist hardliners, warning that those guilty would be punished.

However, the rampage in several areas of the capital Tunis and in the northwest, has raised questions over the real mastermind of the violence and renewed doubts over whether the Islamist government, albeit moderate, is able to stamp it out.

Al-Qaida's chief has urged Tunisians to rise up to demand the rule of Islamic law, slamming the ruling Ennahda Islamist party for "violating" sharia law, in a message posted online on Sunday.

"O, honest and free Tunisians. The masks have dropped. Rise up to support your sharia," said Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message entitled "People of Tunisia, support your sharia," posted on Islamist websites.

Tunisia's decision to extradite Libya's former prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi back to his home country is definitive, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali told Agence France Presse on Friday.

"The decision to hand over Mr. Mahmoudi is irrevocable," he said, without providing a date for the extradition of the former premier, a stalwart of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s fallen regime.

Some 100 people defied a government ban Saturday to rally in the center of the Tunisian capital against Salafist extremism, accusing the authorities of double standards.

Security forces surrounded the demonstrators in Tunis as they shouted slogans calling for the government to resign.

Officials in Tunisia's interior ministry said Friday they had banned a demonstration against Salafist extremism planned for this weekend, raising the prospect of fresh clashes on the streets.

Activists using the Internet had called for the protest for Saturday on the city's main thoroughfare, avenue Habib Bourguiba.

World inaction after the killing of more than 100 people, half of them children, in the Syrian town of Houla at the weekend will only encourage Damascus to commit more massacres, Tunisia said Monday.

"Tunisia firmly condemns this horrific carnage and reiterates its call on the international community to give Syria the attention it deserves," said a statement from President Moncef Marzouki's office.

The Bardo museum in Tunisia's capital, renowned for its exceptional collection of ancient mosaics, on Friday opened a new wing after a 10 million euro ($12.7 million) facelift.

Unique in the scope of its treasures, the museum, which doubled its surface area, boasts objects from prehistory, the Phoenician period and Punic and Numidian times, as well as Roman, Christian and Islamic artifacts.

Violent clashes between rival clans in Tunisia have left 18 people injured, one of them seriously, the TAP agency reported on Monday.

The clashes occurred Sunday night and Monday morning in the Feriana region in the center-west of the north African country and erupted over a dispute over iron trafficking from neighboring Algeria, according to the interior ministry.

An Algerian Islamist leader said Sunday that a Tunisian-style revolt was the only option after polls he charged were fraudulent and threatened a mass pullout of smaller parties from parliament.

"These results closed the door on change by the ballot box, and the Tunisian option is all that's left for those who believe in change," Abdallah Djaballah, who heads the Front for Justice and Development, told Agence France Presse.