FOXNews.com: 25 Egyptian Police Executed in Sinai

FOXNews.com FOX News Channel - We Report. You Decide. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

50% off Print Subscription of USA Today Get the news delivered to your doorstep. Lock in the savings and receive USA Today for just $0.75 a day. From our sponsors

25 Egyptian Police Executed in Sinai Aug 19th 2013, 08:42 Egyptian security officials say suspected Islamist militants ambushed two minibuses in northern Sinai Monday, killing 25 policemen. The officials say the attack took place as the two vehicles were driving through a village near the town of Rafah, located on the border of the Gaza Strip in the volatile Sinai Peninsula. According to authorities, the militants forced the two vehicles to stop and the policemen were ordered outside and made to lie down before they were shot execution-style. The officials said that the policemen were off-duty and in civilian clothes.  Initially, rocket-propelled grenades were believed to have been used in the attack. Egyptian state television also reported that the men were shot execution-style The officials told the Associated Press the attack also left two policemen wounded. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media. Sinai has been witnessing almost daily attacks by suspected militants since the July 3 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in a military coup. Egypt's military and security forces have been engaged in a long battle against militants in the northern half of the peninsula. Militants and tribesmen have used the area for smuggling and other criminal activity for years. Militants have fired rockets into Israel and staged other cross-border attacks there on previous occasions. The attack on authorities came one day after at least 36 people detained on suspicion of taking part in Egypt's street clashes died when they tried to escape from a prison truck convoy. Officials, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said those killed -- which included members of the Muslim Brotherhood -- were part of a convoy of some 600 detainees heading to Abu Zaabal prison in northern Egypt. The officials said detainees in one of the trucks rioted and managed to capture and attack a police officer inside. Security forces responded with tear gas, hoping to freeing the badly beaten officer, but the gas ended up suffocating 36 of the detainees, the officials added. Egypt's Interior Ministry supported the officials' description of the events, according to Reuters, but did not say how many people were killed. However, the country's official news agency, MENA, offered a different account of the violence. MENA reports that gunman belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood approached the trucks and exchanged fire with guards. Thirty-six Muslim Brotherhood detainees then died in the gunfire as they tried to escape, MENA said. The differences in the accounts could not be immediately reconciled Sunday night. The deaths came after Egyptian authorities raided the homes of Muslim Brotherhood members , detaining hundreds of mid-level officials in a bid to crack down on attacks on Christian churches and businesses. The group had plans for marches in Cairo, but cancelled them later in the day, claiming that snipers were positioned on rooftops along the routes. Egypt's military leader, Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, said Sunday during a gathering of top military commanders and police chiefs that the army will not stand by silently in the face of violence. It was El-Sissi's first appearance since the deadly crackdown on Wednesday. He also said that the Army has no intention to seize power, while calling on Islamists to join the political process. "We will not stand by silently watching the destruction of the country and the people or the torching the nation and terrorizing the citizens," he said in comments quoted on state television and posted on an official military Facebook page. "We have given many chances ... to end the crisis peacefully and call for the followers of the former regime to participate in rebuilding the democratic track and integrate in the political process and the future map instead of confrontations and destroying the Egyptian state." A military timetable calls for the nation's constitution to be amended and for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in 2014. Since security forces cleared two sit-in camps filled with supporters of former President Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches, along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism. At least 300 Muslim Brotherhood officials and field operatives were detained in several cities during Sunday's raids, security officials and group statements said. In Assiut, 200 miles south of Cairo, 163 of the group's officials and operatives were rounded up in different towns in the province, security officials said. They said those arrested face charges of instigating violence and orchestrating attacks on police stations and churches. In the city of Suez, nine people were arrested after being caught on film attacking army vehicles, burning churches and assaulting Christian-owned stores, officials said. And in Luxor, more than 20 Brotherhood senior officials were detained, officials said. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has launched protests since Morsi's July 3 ouster by the military, scuttled plans for two Sunday demonstrations in Cairo. Prior to the cancellations, authorities stationed armored vehicles and troops in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court courthouse in Cairo, which may have turned into another focal point of street violence. Sources in the Muslim Brotherhood told the BBC that the protests were canceled because of the presence of snipers on buildings along the routes of the marches," although the claim could not be verified. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions