the government on the rumor

2109: On the subject of Gen Suleiman, the government is denying that he was targeted in an assassination attempt, the Associated Press reports. A government statement says a stray bullet from an exchange of fire between “criminal elements” struck the lead car in his motorcade as it moved through an area of disturbances on 28 January. The vice-president was unhurt.

Sounds to me like an assassination attempt, but who knows? Reports said that two of his bodyguards were killed, which seems like a bit much for a “stray bullet” incident even if it were more than a few bullets. Suleiman is a fan of armored limousines, remember, and was probably riding in one at the time.

Actually, the official line becomes weirder and weirder the more I think about it… In the middle of a revolution, a gunfight breaks out between criminal gangs (which never happens in Cairo, by the way) and the new Vice President just happens to be passing at that very moment. It would be one of the damndest coincidences.