TUNIS, Tunisia (AP/AFP) - Tunisia's Interior Minister says the same weapon used to assassinate a leftist politician on Thursday was also used in an assassination in February.

Mr Lotfi Ben Jeddou announced on Friday at a press conference that ballistic examination of the bullets fired on Thursday at Mohammed Brahmi showed they came from the same gun used to kill leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid five months earlier.

Two men on a moped shot Brahmi 14 times in front of his home as he was getting in his car. Belaid was killed in a similar fashion.

Mr Ben Jeddou said the same Islamist extremist cell behind Belaid's killing was behind Brahmi's assassination.

"The first elements of the investigation show the implication of Boubaker Hakim, a Salafist extremist," he said.

The assassination has plunged the country into a political crisis, with the opposition calling for the dissolution of the government.