Coptic Christians mourn clash victims in Cairo
- 13 years ago
ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION
STORY: Thousands of Egypt's Coptic Christians crowded into the Coptic Cathedral of St. Marks in Cairo on Monday to mourn those killed in overnight clashes with the army.
Mourners wept and wailed for their dead and Christians accused Egypt's generals of failing to protect them from strict Islamists after 25 people, most of them Coptic demonstrators, were killed in clashes with troops.
Military police raced armoured vehicles into a crowd of Christians who were protesting over an attack on the church in southern Egypt and demanding that Aswan governor Mostafa al-Sayed be dismissed for failing to protect it.
Christians have long grumbled about discrimination by the state and tensions with the majority Muslims have simmered. But violence has become more common with the rise of strict Salafist and other Islamist groups which Mubarak had repressed.
Christians, and some Muslim activists, said the army had used excessive force. Protesters pelted military police with stones, petrol bombs and set light to army and other vehicles in the worst violence since Hosni Mubarak was ousted on Feb 11.
STORY: Thousands of Egypt's Coptic Christians crowded into the Coptic Cathedral of St. Marks in Cairo on Monday to mourn those killed in overnight clashes with the army.
Mourners wept and wailed for their dead and Christians accused Egypt's generals of failing to protect them from strict Islamists after 25 people, most of them Coptic demonstrators, were killed in clashes with troops.
Military police raced armoured vehicles into a crowd of Christians who were protesting over an attack on the church in southern Egypt and demanding that Aswan governor Mostafa al-Sayed be dismissed for failing to protect it.
Christians have long grumbled about discrimination by the state and tensions with the majority Muslims have simmered. But violence has become more common with the rise of strict Salafist and other Islamist groups which Mubarak had repressed.
Christians, and some Muslim activists, said the army had used excessive force. Protesters pelted military police with stones, petrol bombs and set light to army and other vehicles in the worst violence since Hosni Mubarak was ousted on Feb 11.