Thousands of Tunisians took to the streets Saturday for the funeral of an opposition leader assassinated with the same weapon that killed a colleague, as tensions soared after anti-government protests.

Draped in the red and white Tunisian flag, Mohamed Brahmi's coffin was saluted by soldiers as the cortege left his home in the Tunis neighborhood of Ariana for El-Jellaz cemetery.

A bomb exploded near a police post in the port of Tunis on Saturday, damaging a police vehicle, the interior ministry said.

The blast, the first known attack of its kind against a security vehicle in Tunisia, came just hours before the funeral of assassinated opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi.

A demonstrator was killed in the central Tunisian town of Gafsa overnight Friday during a march protesting the assassination of opposition MP Mohamed Brahmi, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

Mohamed Moufli, 45, was killed as police used tear gas to break up the night-time march. He was struck in the head by a tear gas cannister and died soon afterwards in hospital.

Assassinated opposition MP Mohammed Brahmi will be buried on Saturday in a Tunis cemetery next to leftist leader Chokri Belaid who was killed six months ago, Brahmi's wife said.

Tunisia's main labor union has called for a national funeral, and the police are deploying in force.

Syria on Friday condemned the assassination of Tunisian opposition politician Mohammed Brahmi, who was killed by a gunman outside his home near Tunis.

Brahmi, a leading opposition figure and critic of Tunisia's ruling Islamists, was shot dead in Ariana, near the Tunisian capital, on Thursday.

Protests and a general strike swept Tunisia Friday after gunmen killed an opposition head with "the same gun" used to kill a colleague, as under-fire authorities pointed to al-Qaida links.

Mohammed Brahmi was gunned down with the same weapon used to kill another opposition politician, Chokri Belaid, six months earlier, Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou said.

Tunisia faced a general strike Friday after gunmen shot dead a leading opposition figure in a killing that brought thousands of protesters onto the streets and sparked international condemnation.

Tunisia's national airline Tunisair cancelled all flights Friday.

The United States on Thursday condemned the assassination of a leading critic of Tunisia's ruling Islamists, saying violence had no place in the country's transition to democracy.

Tunisian MP Mohammed Brahmi was shot dead outside his home Thursday in the second such slaying this year, with fingers again pointed at the authorities.

French President Francois Hollande strongly condemned the killing of Tunisian opposition politician Mohammed Brahmi on Thursday and called on the country to unite behind its democratic transition.

"The president condemns in the strongest terms the assassination this morning in Tunis of lawmaker Mohammed Brahmi," Hollande said in a statement.

Six people believed to have orchestrated the killing of an opposition figure whose assassination in February plunged Tunisia into a major political crisis have been identified, a minister said Wednesday.

"We have identified the sponsors and the authors of the assassination of Chokri Belaid," said Noureddin B'Hiri, senior adviser to the prime minister, after a cabinet meeting.