terrible evening in Cairo

The bus home was severely detoured, and the occupants filled me in on what was going on.

Initial news reports (from BBC) said 3 soldiers were killed as Coptic Christians rioted to protest the burning of a church in the South.

But now it’s looking like the protests were entirely peaceful, and were shot at randomly and attacked with stones. At least 17 were killed. This is an outrage.

The good thing about the new Egypt, however, is that the press is no longer tame, and tries to report it as they see it.

You can read AL-AHRAM ONLINE. You can also brave the slower site (porbably clogged ith traffic) of AL-MASRY AL-YOUM.

“9:21 pm: Military police are chasing protesters around downtown Cairo.”

“9:22 pm: Military police stormed into the offices of the private Channel 25 television channel located at Maspiro, and asked journalists if they were hiding protesters or if there was anyone throwing stones from the balcony. Soldiers demanded to see the ID cards of journalists at the channel to check who was Christian, physically assaulting some, including one women who was pregnant. The channel stopped their live broadcasts, but said they hoped to resume service soon.”

This is perhaps the ugliest night we’ve seen since February, though details are still pouring in.

Current casualties= 22 dead, 160 injured. The toll will probably rise much higher.

This was all right in the heart of downtown, maybe a 20-minute walk from where I am sitting right now.