Tunisian leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid was shot dead Wednesday morning as he left his home in Tunis.

Tunisian leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid was shot dead Wednesday morning as he left his home in Tunis.

Belaid was head of the opposition Democratic Patriots party and a harsh critic of the government. His wife said he was hit by two bullets as he left his home.

The murder prompted President Moncef Marzouki to scrap a trip to Cairo where he was due to attend a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and return home in the afternoon, one of his advisers, Ghassen Dridi, told AFP.

Belaid's brother accused ruling Ennahda party of being behind the attack.
My brother was assassinated. I am desperate and depressed," Abdelmajid Belaid, brother of the dead leader, told AFP.
"I accuse ... (Ennahda leader) Rached Ghannouchi of assassinating my brother," he said.

Belaid's party was part of a coalition of parties which has emerged in opposition to the Tunisia government.

The country is witnessing a rise in violence fed by political and social discontent more than two years after the toppling of the former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

For his part, Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali denounced Belaid's murder as an "act of terrorism" against Tunisia.
He said Belaid was shot dead with three bullets fired from close range by a man wearing a traditional long garment with a pointed hood.

"This is a criminal act, an act of terrorism not only against Belaid but against the whole of Tunisia," Jebali from the Ennahda party told Mosaique FM, while promising to do everything possible to swiftly arrest the murderer.

"The Tunisian people are not used to such things. This is a serious turn ... our duty to all, as a government, as a people, is to be wise and not fall into the criminal trap which seeks to push the country into chaos."

Belaid's party belonged to the Popular Front coalition of leftist parties that has emerged in opposition to the Tunisia government.