Protesters clash with police in Cairo

Protesters throw stones at riot police during clashes in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, during the early hours of June 29.NEW: At least 26 officers are injured, the Ministry of Interior saysPolice use tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a protestDemonstrators were marking the deaths of protests in Egypt's revolutionTahrir Square was the heart of the revolt against then-President Hosni Mubarak

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets early Wednesday to break up a demonstration by relatives of those killed in Egypt's revolution.

Clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square between protesters and authorities have left at least 26 officers injured, the Ministry of Interior said.

In addition, at least five protesters were wounded in the tear gas and rubber bullet firing, and ambulances continued to transport protesters to medical attention. Some demonstrators were throwing rocks.

About 1,000 people turned out Tuesday night to commemorate the victims of the January-February uprising that drove longtime Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak from power. Police began using tear gas on demonstrators who would not leave the square.

Authorities were trying to block entrances to the area, as more people were being asked on the Internet to join the protesters.

At least five people were seen bleeding from their heads amid the clashes, which continued into Wednesday's early-morning hours.

The human rights group Amnesty Amnesty International has estimated at least 840 people were killed and more than 6,000 wounded during the three-week revolution. The military-led government that took over when Mubarak resigned has been prosecuting several former officials accused of ordering security forces to fire on protesters.

A police officer accused of killing 20 protesters during a January 28 demonstration has been sentenced to death, and ex-Interior Minister Habib El Adly faces capital charges in the deaths of demonstrators. El Adly and other officials in Mubarak's government have also been convicted on corruption charges, and the ailing Mubarak could be put on trial as well.

Egypt's military rulers have set parliamentary elections for September, and an administrative judge ordered the dissolution of local city councils that anti-Mubarak activists had denounced as corrupt. But sporadic protests have continued in the months since Mubarak's ouster as Egyptians have demanded speedier reforms and economic improvements.

Journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report.

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Police clash with protesters in Cairo (AFP)

CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) – Egyptian security forces fired tear gas at protesters in Cairo during violent clashes that left several injured, an AFP photographer said.

Tahrir Square, the epicentre of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, was sealed off as police continued to fire tear gas into the early hours of Wednesday and a thick white cloud hung over the square.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered there and the numbers were still swelling, witnesses said.

One protester, speaking on a loudspeaker from the square's main mosque, urged others to stay put and called on police to withdraw and stop attacking them.

A reporter for Egyptian satellite channel al-Hayat had described the scene as "a street war between riot police and protesters."

According to the interior ministry, the trouble started when a group of people stormed a theatre where a memorial service was being held for those killed in the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February.

A security official said the group then headed to the state TV and were joined by hundreds who began to throw rocks before heading to Tahrir Square.

But activists said the families of the victims had been denied entry to the memorial in Cairo and were beaten by police.

"After being denied entry .... clashes erupted between protesters and security guards at the theatre. The police showed up and started beating the families of martyrs," pro-democracy activist Arabawy wrote on his blog.

Nearly 850 people were killed during the popular revolt that brought Mubarak's 30-year rule to an end.

Witnesses told AFP that buses unloaded young men armed with sticks and knives, accusing remnants of the old regime of stirring chaos.

When protests erupted on January 25 to demand Mubarak's ouster, the veteran leader's loyalists used hired thugs to beat back protesters.

Tuesday's clashes erupted just hours after a Cairo court ordered the dissolution of local councils, which were dominated by Mubarak's National Democratic Party.

"I don't think the timing of these clashes is a coincidence," said one witness to satellite channel ON TV.

"It came just after the dissolution of the local councils, a decision which I'm sure will make many people (from the old regime) very angry," the witness in Tahrir Square said.

Television footage showed protesters chanting: "the people demand the fall of the Field Marshal," referring to Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power when Mubarak stepped down.

Protesters who first took to the streets to demand the overthrow of Mubarak, began shifting their anger towards the ruling military council, accusing it of using Mubarak-era tactics to stifle dissent.

Activists have called for a massive rally on July 8 aimed at keeping up the pressure for democratic reforms.

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Iranian diplomat suspected of spying leaves Cairo (AP)

CAIRO – An Iranian diplomat who was arrested by Egyptian security agents on suspicion of spying has left Cairo for Iran.

Qassem al-Husseini, third secretary at Iran's diplomatic mission in Cairo, was arrested on Saturday and questioned on suspicions of illegally gathering intelligence and trying to set up spy rings in Egypt and Gulf countries, Egypt's state news agency said.

He was released Sunday because of his diplomatic immunity and left Cairo on Monday on an Emirates airline to Dubai.

In an ironic twist, al-Husseini's plane was also carrying a 45-member delegation from the Egyptian-Iranian friendship society, which aims to restore political ties between the countries.

Relations between Iran and Egypt have been frosty since the 1979 Iranian Revolution and Egyptian-Israeli peace accord.

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Clashes involving Coptics hit Cairo

Egyptian riot police were deployed and created a human barrier between the men and the demonstrators.NEW: Witnesses claim the attackers were people seeking to incite sectarian violenceNEW: A demonstrator demands international protection Pro-Coptic protesters clash with unidentified menTensions have risen this year between Egypt's Muslim majority and its Coptic Christian minority

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Violence erupted in the Cairo neighborhood of Maspero when pro-Coptic protesters clashed with unidentified men, leaving at least two people dead and 60 injured, state TV reported early Sunday.

The demonstrators initially staged a sit-in in front of the state TV building to demand greater rights for the religious minority.

Problems between Egypt's Muslim majority and its Coptic Christian minority have been on the rise in recent months, with a number of violent clashes reported between the two groups.

Dozens of unidentified men, dressed in plain clothes, began firing live ammunition into the air and attacking the demonstrators around the entrance of the sit-in enclosure with sticks and stones. They also threw Molotov cocktails. It was not immediately clear who the attackers were or what their motive was.

"They did not have beards. It was just a bunch of bad guys carrying guns and clubs," said Maged Girguis, a pro-Coptic protester.

Witnesses claimed the attackers were people from neighboring slums, seeking to incite sectarian violence.

Egyptian riot police were deployed and created a human barrier between the men and the demonstrators.

A pro-Coptic protester was hit in the head by a rock. He initially refused to enter an ambulance, saying he feared arrest by the army. Volunteer doctors attempted to treat him in a make-shift field clinic but his wounds were severe and he was eventually taken away in the ambulance.

The demonstrators captured one of their alleged attackers, who was badly beaten.

The pro-Coptic protesters broke up the sidewalk around the television station and threw chunks of rock and concrete at their attackers. The demonstrators were armed with clubs and metal chains and a man was seen carrying a sword.

Later, two groups of men were seen clashing outside the foreign ministry, which is near the TV building. It was not immediately clear whether they were the same groups that fought outside the TV station earlier, though state TV reported that Coptics were involved in the unrest.

The battling groups of men threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at each other. Black smoke billowed up from the street as cars burned outside the foreign ministry and tear gas was fired. Sporadic gunshots rang out for hours.

Clashes continued into the early morning.

Thousands of riot police and soldiers were deployed and tear gas was fired to clear the crowds. Many men fainted from the gas, while others rushed to assist them.

Army units secured the perimeter and the gunshots stopped. Ambulances arrived.

A man bleeding from a gunshot wound to his stomach was carried to a make-shift clinic by pro-Coptic demonstrators.

A doctor attempted to remove a pellet from another man's leg.

"I was at the front line. They were shooting from the May 15th bridge and I got hit," said Hani Salama, gasping for air.

Thousands of demonstrators chanted loudly, calling for a million-man protest outside the state TV building.

"We demand international protection. The Coptics are threatened all over Egypt," said Rafiq Hanna, a protester.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent bipartisan federal agency, last month added Egypt to a list of countries named as the worst violators of religious freedom.

"The Egyptian government engaged in and tolerated religious freedom violations before and after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2001," the commissioners wrote in the report. They cited violence toward religious minorities in Egypt, including Coptic Christians and non-majority Muslim groups.

"Since February 11, religious freedom conditions have not improved and attacks targeting religious minorities have continued," the report said.

Officials reported at least 12 people were killed and 230 injured in sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians in the town of Imbaba in Cairo on May 7.

A Coptic church in the town of Alexandria was bombed on New Year's Day, killing 23 people -- the deadliest attack on Christians in Egypt in recent times.

About 9% of Egypt's 80 million residents are Coptic Christians. They base their theology on the teachings of the Apostle Mark, who introduced Christianity to Egypt, according to St. Takla Church in Alexandria, the capital of Coptic Christianity.

The religion split with other Christians in the 5th century over the definition of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

CNN's Mary Rogers contributed to this report.

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12 killed in Cairo sectarian clashes

Firefighters extinguish a blaze at a church following clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo, Egypt on May 8, 2011.NEW: Copts rally for international protectionAt least 190 arrested, state media saysWitnesses: The Egyptian military fires shots into the air to break up a crowdClashes erupt over rumor of a woman held against her will, an official says

Cairo (CNN) -- Muslim-Christian sectarian violence intensified in Egypt this weekend, spurring an emergency meeting of the Cabinet and public exhortations from Coptic Christians for international protection.

At least 12 people were killed and 232 others were wounded in sectarian clashes outside a Cairo church, according to state TV. Officials said violence began over rumors that a Christian woman who converted to Islam was being held at the church against her will.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf postponed a trip to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the church attack and hold the emergency meeting, according to EgyNews, Egypt's official news agency.

A small group of Coptic Christians gathering near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Sunday called for international protection of Egypt's Christian community and condemned the government for not doing more to protect them.

Small groups composed of Christians and Muslims engaged in heated debate sectarian tensions mounted, but they were peaceful. Soldiers stood in a line across the road to prevent protesters from approaching the U.S. embassy.

In the Cairo neighborhood of Maspiro, violence erupted when several hundred people, predominantly Christian but also Muslims, demonstrated in favor of national unity in front of the TV building.

Stones were hurled and people threw bricks from rooftops on predominantly Christian protesters. Some people were injured.

Chants could be heard of "with our souls and blood we will sacrifice ourselves for the cross." Military riot police with red helmets and clubs separated mutually hostile crowds.

Problems between Egypt's Muslim majority and its Coptic Christian minority have been on the rise in recent months, with a number of violent clashes reported between the two groups. Tensions flared after a recently-published U.S. government report on international religious freedom detailed the hostility targeting the minority Copts in the predominantly Muslim society.

During clashes on Saturday, witnesses said an armed group of Muslims marched on Saint Mena Coptic Orthodox Church, one of the oldest churches in Egypt.

Witnesses said Muslims and Christians exchanged gunfire, sending people running for cover.

"With my own eyes I saw three people killed and dozens injured," said Mina Adel, a Christian resident. "There's no security here. There's a big problem. People attacked us, and we have to protect ourselves."

There were conflicting reports about who attacked the church.

Some witnesses said the group was made up of Muslim fundamentalists, known as Salafists. Others, including Interior Ministry spokesman Alla Mahmoud, said it was angry Muslims from a nearby mosque.

Mahmoud said the clashes were sparked by reports of a Christian woman who married a Muslim man and was allegedly being held inside the church.

Military, special forces and riot police were called in to try to break up the violence, firing warning shots in the air, according to witnesses.

At the same time, at the nearby Coptic Church of the Holy Virgin, firefighters responded to a blaze that witnesses said appeared to have been started by the members of the same group that attacked the other church.

Hundreds of residents in the working class neighborhood of Imbaba stood outside as the church burned and two men were seen jumping from a window of the building, according to witnesses.

Across the street, residents standing outside the Al Wehda mosque blamed "thugs" for the violence.

"It was thugs who burned the church, not Salafists (fundamentalists)," said Jamal El Banan. "We never had such sedition before the revolution."

Tensions were high in the neighborhood following the clashes, with soldiers firing shots into the air overnight to break up the crowd, witnesses said.

CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman, based in Cairo, described the crowd as "very hostile," saying he was forced to leave the neighborhood after his vehicle was targeted with rocks.

A Coptic church in the town of Alexandria was bombed on New Year's Day, killing 23 people -- the deadliest attack on Christians in Egypt in recent times.

Ten days later, a gunman killed a Christian man and wounded five others on a train in Egypt.

In November, a group with ties to al Qaeda in Iraq announced that all Christians in the Middle East would be "legitimate targets," as the group's deadline for Egypt's Coptic church to release alleged Muslim female prisoners expired.

The group's claim that the Coptic Church in Egypt is holding female prisoners is based on widespread rumors of Coptic women in Egypt converting to Islam and being detained by the church in an attempt to compel or persuade them to return to their original faith.

About 9% of Egypt's 80 million residents are Coptic Christians. They base their theology on the teachings of the Apostle Mark, who introduced Christianity to Egypt, according to St. Takla Church in Alexandria, the capital of Coptic Christianity.

The religion split with other Christians in the 5th century over the definition of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent bipartisan federal agency, last month added Egypt to a list of countries named as the worst violators of religious freedom.

"The Egyptian government engaged in and tolerated religious freedom violations before and after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2001," the commissioners wrote in the report. They cited violence toward religious minorities in Egypt including Coptic Christians and non-majority Muslim groups.

"Since February 11, religious freedom conditions have not improved and attacks targeting religious minorities have continued," the report said.

The group said Egypt was put on the list of "Countries of Particular Concern" for "a number of very specific reasons but one that was a particular concern to the commissioners was the issue of impunity," commission chair Leonard Leo told reporters at a Washington news conference about the report.

One benchmark the commission looked at for Egypt, Leo said, was the trial following the Naga Hammadi shootings, which involved a massacre on the day Coptic Christians celebrate their Christmas Eve services.

"That, for us, was a very important signal the impunity issue was getting worse and not better. When you combine that with other conditions that have existed, particularly various elements of state sponsored repression, we believe there was sufficient grounds for triggering the (International Religious Freedom) act standard, which is a systematic, egregious violations of the freedom of religion," Leo said.

Elizabeth Prodromou, a vice-chair of the commission, said the group noted "both a qualitative, as well as a quantitative, deterioration in religious freedom issues in Egypt."

"In particular, we saw a dramatic uptick in targeted religious violence, primarily against the Coptic Orthodox community, but also against the Roman Catholic community and other Christian communities," she said.

The commission recommended that the U.S. military direct some of the "existing military assistance" to protecting Coptic Christians and other religious minorities, in addition to diplomatic efforts to pressure the new government with reform measures.

CNN's Ben Wedeman contributed to this report

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Muslim mobs torch two Cairo churches, 12 dead

CAIRO (AP) — Muslim mobs set two Cairo churches on fire overnight during sectarian clashes that left 12 dead and more than 200 injured. The deepening religious violence in military-ruled Egypt exacerbated an already chaotic and lawless transition to democracy.

An Egyptian Coptic Christian holds a cross while waving his national flag as another shouts slogans during a demonstration outside the Cairo High Court on Sunday, following overnight unrest.

Mobs of ultraconservative Muslims attacked the St. Menas church in the Cairo slum of Imbaba late Saturday following rumors that a Christian woman married to a Muslim man had been abducted. Local residents said a separate mob of youths armed with knives and machetes attacked the Virgin Mary church several blocks away with firebombs.

"People were scared to come near them," said local resident Adel Mohammed, 29, who lives near the Virgin Mary Church. "They looked scary. They threw their firebombs at the church and set parts of it ablaze."

Islamic clerics denounced the violence, sounding alarm bells at the escalating tension during the transitional period.

"These events do not benefit either Muslim or Copts," Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the Sheik of al-Azhar, told the daily Al-Ahram.

Interfaith relationships are taboo in Egypt, where the Muslim majority and sizable Christian minority are both largely conservative. Such relationships are often the source of deadly clashes between the faiths.

During Egypt's 18-day uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak several months ago, there was a rare spirit of brotherhood between Muslims and Christians. Each group protected the other during prayer sessions in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolution.

But in the months that followed the toppling of Mubarak on Feb. 11, there has been a sharp rise in sectarian tensions, fueled in part by newly active ultraconservative Muslim movement, known as the Salafis.

The once quiescent Salafis have become more assertive post-revolution in trying to spread their ultraconservative version of an Islamic way of life. In particular, they have focused their wrath on Egypt's Christians, who make up 10 percent of the country's 80 million people.

On Friday, a few hundred Salafis marched through Cairo celebrating al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and condemning the U.S. operation that killed him.

Critics say Egyptian military authorities have done too little to stem the religious violence. But authorities arrested 190 people, immediately, sending them to military prosecutions and threatening the maximum penalty against anyone attacking houses of worship. It was the military's toughest response yet to a series of violent clashes between the two religious groups.

Egypt's state news agency said of those killed, at least six Muslims and at least three Christians were among those killed. The body of one Christian was found inside the St. Menas church, the agency said. The Health Ministry said 12 had died and more than 230 were injured, at least 11 of them critically.

The clashes were set off Saturday around sundown when word spread around the low-income neighborhood of Imbaba that a Christian woman who married a Muslim was abducted and is being kept in the church against her will.

The report, which was never confirmed by local religious figures, sent a large mob of Muslims toward the St. Menas church. Christians created a human barricade around the church and clashes erupted. Gunfire sounded across the neighborhood, and witnesses said people on rooftops nearby were firing into the crowd.

Muslims alleged the Christians opened fire first. Then crowds of hundreds of Muslims from the neighborhood, in many parts instigated by the local ultraconservative Salafi sheiks, converged on the area. They lobbed firebombs at homes and shops and also at St. Menas church, setting its facade on fire.

Residents say Christians were hiding inside. Muslims were chanting: "With our blood and soul, we defend you Islam."

The army and police tried to break up the crowd by firing tear gas, but failed to clear the streets. Troops surrounded the church after the fire was put out.

Later the same night, witnesses said a separate Muslim mob, mostly youths armed with machetes and knives, moved to the Virgin Mary church nearby and also set it on fire.

The mob then dispersed to side streets, and local residents, including the neighborhood's Muslims, tried to put out the fire. At one point, they attempted to get into the closed mosque opposite the church to get water. But the youthful mob armed with knives blocked Mohammed and others in his group.

"They told us keep the mosque out of it," said Mohammed, who lives near the church. "They were thugs. The way they talk, they have no religious or political views."

He said the firefighters and security arrived on the scene more than an hour later.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, angry residents stormed a six-story building near the St. Menas, saying Christians used it to shoot at Muslims.

"They were shooting from the roof, and they killed Muslims," said 18-year old Yehia Ramadan. "We won't stand by idle."

Flames were coming out of windows, and furniture were strewn along the sidewalks. The building appeared to be empty, but it was not clear when its residents fled.

The new tensions erupted after a year of Salafi protests against the alleged abduction by the Coptic Church of a priest's wife, Camilla Shehata. The Salafis claim, she converted to Islam to escape an unhappy marriage — a phenomenon they maintain is common.

If a Christian woman marries a Muslim, she is expelled from the church. A Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a Christian man, according to state law. Because divorce is banned under the Coptic Church, with rare exceptions, some Christian women resort to conversion to Islam or another Christian denomination to get out of a marriage.

Salafis have used the case of Shehata as a rallying point for their supporters and they accuse the police of collaborating with the church to reconvert her.

Her case was even used by Iraq's branch of al-Qaida as a justification for an attack on a Baghdad church that killed 68 people and other threats by the group against Christians.

On Saturday just before the violence erupted in Imbaba, Shehata appeared with her husband and child on a Christian TV station broadcast from outside of Egypt and asserted that she was still a Christian and had never converted.

"Let the protesters leave the Church alone and turn their attention to Egypt's future," she said from an undisclosed location.

Copts complain of widespread discrimination that they say relegates them to second-class citizen status, including tight strictures on building or repairing churches that do not exist for Muslim places of worship.

In the deadliest violence since Mubarak's ouster, 13 were killed in pitched street battles in March after Muslims torched a church. That violence was also triggered by rumors of a love affair between a Muslim woman and a Christian man.

A New Year's Eve suicide bombing outside a Coptic church in the port city of Alexandria killed 21 people, setting off days of protests. Egypt made some arrests but never charged anyone with the attack.

Sameh Fawzi, a Coptic scholar, said the new trend of attacks on churches and heightened tension between ultraconservative Muslims and Copts are taking place in the context of a weakened state and increasingly assertive Salafis.

The military rulers' attempts to hold reconciliation sessions, instead of prosecuting those involved, only serves to reinforce the impression of the state's weakness, he said.

"What needs to happen and quickly is that the state implements the law," he said. "This is a crime of thuggery and it should be treated as such."

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