Tunisian police fired tear gas overnight to disperse protesters demanding the release of suspected members of an Al-Qaida-linked group arrested in the restive Sidi Bouzid region, the government said Friday.

Eight people were detained in a "sweeping security operation" in the central province, targeting radical Islamists belonging to the banned Ansar al-Sharia group and wanted by the authorities, the interior ministry said Thursday.

Hackers briefly disrupted the online voter registration process for Tunisia's parliamentary and presidential polls later this year, the electoral commission said on Thursday.

The commission announced on its Facebook page that registration on the Internet or by SMS was temporarily suspended following "an aggressive attack from a group of electronic hackers seeking to prevent citizens from registering."

Beji Caid Essebsi, the 87-year-old ex-premier and leading opponent of the Islamists, said Tuesday he will stand in Tunisia's presidential poll later this year, if he's "still alive".

"At the moment, my intention is to run" in the November 23 election, Essebsi told a news conference.

Tunisia said Monday it will host a meeting of foreign ministers from the six countries neighboring Libya, to discuss ways of helping it deal with political turmoil and rising lawlessness.

A meeting of Maghreb countries on the situation in Libya had been scheduled for early June but it was delayed indefinitely because of the lack of "visibility" on the crisis unfolding at the time.

Four Tunisian soldiers were killed by a land mine Wednesday in the country's northwest, where the army has been battling Islamist militants, the defense ministry said.

"Four soldiers aboard a Hummer were killed by a land mine explosion during an anti-terror operation" at Jebel Ouergha in Kef province, said ministry spokesman Rachid Bouhoula.

Six members of the Tunisian security forces were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded Tuesday in the mountainous Kef region near the Algerian border, the interior ministry said.

"A roadside bomb exploded as a military vehicle passed by, wounding four soldiers and two members of the National Guard," it said.

A Tunisian diplomat and a fellow embassy staffer who were abducted in Libya returned to Tunisia on a military plane early Monday after being freed by their unknown captors.

Embassy employee Mohamed ben Sheikh kidnapped in Tripoli on March 21 and diplomat Al-Aroussi Kontassi, who was seized April 17, reunited with their families at a military barracks in a suburb of Tunis early Monday.

A Tunisian diplomat and a fellow embassy staffer abducted in Libya earlier this year were freed by their abductors on Sunday after months in captivity, an embassy source said.

"They have been freed and should be returning to Tunisia soon," the source, who declined to be identified, told Agence France Presse, adding that the pair were in good health.

Tunisia's National Assembly approved Wednesday the proposed dates of parliamentary and presidential polls due to take place this year under a deal to end a political crisis.

After months of negotiations among Tunisia's political parties, the assembly approved October 26 for the legislative election and November 23 for the first round of the presidential poll.

At least 2,400 Tunisian jihadists are fighting in Syria, most of them rebels affiliated to the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Tunisia's interior minister said Monday.

"According to what we have gathered, there are 2,400 Tunisians who have gone to Syria to fight with al-Nusra Front and the majority of them -- 80 percent -- with (ISIL)," Lotfi Ben Jeddou told reporters, without specifying his source.