Riots and protests continued Monday across Tunisia with opposition sources saying as many as 24 people have been killed in clashes between police and youths angry over unemployment and a lack of political freedom under the reign of President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, who took to the airwaves in an attempt to calm the nation.

In an "I-feel-your-pain" gambit, he promised to create 300,000 new jobs. But he also took a hard line against the protesters, blaming them for the violence.



"The events were violent, sometimes bloody, and caused the death of civilians and wounded several members of the security forces," he said. "The events were the work of masked gangs that attacked at night government buildings and even civilians inside their homes in a terrorist act that cannot be overlooked."

Few bought Ben Ali's rhetoric. Security forces continued to be deployed in full force across the country. One local trade union source said that "the Tunisian authorities decisively deployed troops that were stationed in front of a number of government organization in the town of Thela" after a gathering by protesters and a strike by teachers to protest the shootings.

In response to huge rallies by college and high school students around the country, Ben Ali's education minister took the extraordinary step of cancelling all classes and shuttering all campuses, according to the country's official TAP news agency.