CNN  — 

Six Tunisian national guard officers and two militants were killed Wednesday in clashes between government forces and an “armed terrorist group” in the turbulent North African nation, a state-run news outlet reported.

The violence happened in a village near the city of Sidi Bouzid, where the December 2010 suicide by self-immolation of fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi sparked the first protests of the Arab Spring.

Political turmoil recently has beset the North African country, which had been seen as a model of stability after the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.