That generosity is all the more remarkable, he added, given the challenges Tunisia faces in the wake of its own revolution — which in January ended 23 years of kleptocratic rule by President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali — and previous waves of Libyan refugees this year in the north. Illustrating the difficulty of keeping the Libyan conflict sealed within the country's land borders, artillery shells fired by Gaddafi forces also struck the Tunisian side of the crossing.
– Tunisia was not pleased today when a battle between Libya’s warring factions spilled across the border today, after Moammar Gadhafi’s forces attacked a rebel-held frontier crossing. The incursion was brief and limited, and Gadhafi’s forces even apologized locally, Reuters reports. But Tunisia’s foreign ministry still issued a statement expressing “extreme indignation” and demanding “measures to put an immediate stop to these violations.” But Tunisia has proven remarkably welcoming to Libyans who aren’t fighting. Some 30,000 refugees have fled there, and the vast majority of them have been welcomed into the homes of Tunisians, the New York Times reports. Only about 2,500 have had to settle in the relatively small refugee camp at the border. “It’s the first time I’ve seen such an impressive response,” says a spokesman for the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees.