Nine killed in Cairo sectarian clashes: officials

Clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Egyptian capital Cairo Saturday left nine dead, more than 100 injured and a church gutted, medical and security officials said.

The two groups clashed after Muslims attacked the Coptic Saint Mena church in the working class neighbourhood of Imbaba to free a Christian woman they alleged was being held against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam.

A parish priest, Father Hermina, said that at least five of the dead were Copts who died when "thugs and rioters fired at them" in the late afternoon attack.

The Gospel had been laid on a body wrapped in a sheet that was lying inside the church.
The church floor was bloodstained as wounded Christians were brought in for treatment.
Outside, military police parked several armoured cars to block off Muslim protesters.

They fired their guns into the air as Christians in front of the church and Muslim protesters down the street hurled stones at each other.
The Muslim protesters threw firebombs, one of them setting an apartment near the church on fire.

They scuffled with soldiers, blaming them for not doing enough to protect them.

The soldiers advanced at Muslim protesters who edged closer to the church, firing over their heads to repel them.
Special forces were later deployed outside the church.

Hermina and witnesses said the Muslims tried to storm the church earlier in the day, claiming the Christians were holding a Muslim woman.

Elsewhere in Imbaba, Muslim protesters threw firebombs at another church, setting it on fire, police officials said.
They said the fire was put out.

At one of the cordons outside the St Mena church, Muslim protesters said they were first fired upon by the Copts, after they tried to find a Christian woman they say converted to Islam and was being held inside.

"They started firing on us. We were peaceful," said one of the protesters who gave his name as Mamduh.
"We won't leave until they give up their weapons and the people who killed us are tried."

Egypt's mufti -- the government's chief interpreter of Islamic law -- Ali Gomaa condemned the clashes and said they "were toying with Egypt's national security."

The violence could not have been caused by "religious people who understand their religion, whether Muslim or Christian," he told the official MENA news agency.

The injured, who suffered from fractures and gunshot wounds, were taken to four city hospitals, medical officials said.

Copts account for up to 10 percent of the country's 80 million people and they complain of discrimination, and have recently been the targets of sectarian attacks.

Claims that Christian women who converted to Islam were kidnapped and held in churches or monasteries have soured relations between the two communities for months.

Egypt's military rulers had warned on May 1 of strong measures against anyone inciting sectarian strife, in a bid to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power after president Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February, said it was "exerting all efforts to end sectarian disagreements on the Egyptian street to protect this nation."

The statement came after a series of Muslim-Christian clashes and amid the growing public presence of Salafis -- a puritanical Islamist sect -- since the fall of Mubarak after a wave of mass protests.

The Salafis have held protests outside the Coptic Church's headquarters in Cairo to demand the release of two women they alleged were being held after converting to Islam.

The church denies the women converted to Islam.
 

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