11 killed in attack on Egyptian protesters in Cairo

Cairo – At least 11 protesters have been killed by armed attackers near the Ministry of Defence in Cairo, Egyptian officials have said.

The unidentified assailants at dawn on Wednesday set upon several hundred protesters who have camped out in the Abbasiya area for days to call for an end to military rule in Egypt.

In response to the clashes, military and riot vehicles were deployed to the area later on Wednesday to quell the violence.

“Eight armoured personnel carriers from the military central zone entered the Abassiya area to disperse the fighting between protesters, and not to disperse the peaceful demonstrators,” an army statement said. “However, protesters attacked the armed forces. The armed forces have orders to hold their ground.”

Egypt’s health ministry said dozens of people had been wounded in the dawn fighting with sticks, stones, batons and bullets. Low-level clashes continued hours after the initial attack.

The state news agency MENA said “thugs”, some of them with guns, had assaulted the protesters.

The violence casts a shadow over the presidential election due to begin on May 23 and 24, with a run-off in June, and highlights the fragility of Egypt’s transition to democracy which has been punctuated by violence and political bickering.

There had been some scuffles near the Defence Ministry in recent days but protests had been broadly peaceful.

Residents gathered around a police station in the vicinity after the clashes on Wednesday, demanding that police disperse the protesters, whom they also accused of being thugs.

The April 6 Youth Movement decried the “massacres” and demanded the army be held to account for its “crimes committed against the revolution and revolutionaries”.

“These practices are a continuation of the cleansing and killing methods which the army council uses to suppress the revolution,” April 6 said in a statement.

Meanwhile, two presidential candidates decided to temporarily suspend their campaigns over the clashes.