Melee Between Egyptian Security Forces and Coptic Christians.

Egypt’s Health Ministry is reporting that 23 people are dead and many others wounded after clashes between Egyptian Security Forces and Coptic Christians near Maspero state television station in Cairo. The fighting is allegedly in retaliation for a September 30th attack on a Coptic Christian Church in Merinab, Aswan about the church’s right to build a dome. After comments by Aswan Governor Mustafa al-Seyyed that intimated the Coptic Christians had built the dome illegally, some members of the community used this as an excuse to attack the church. Al-Arabiya reports that the Coptic Christians were demonstrating peacefully until they reached the television station at Maspero, at which point the military began to open fire upon them. Demonstrators seized weapons and fought back, leading to the bloodshed which has resulted in militarily imposed curfews on the nation as well as restriction of movement in the now famous Tahrir Square, site of the demonstrations which led to the end of the Mubarak regime.

[Al-Arabiya]

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