Egypt police shoot Bedouin protester dead

Egypt police shoot Bedouin protester dead 

Egypt's security source and eyewitnesses said that the Egyptian security forces shot dead a Bedouin protester in the north of Egypt's Sinai region on Thursday

Egypt police

The 22-year-old man, Mohamed Atef, was shot in the head while demonstrating in the town of Sheikh Zoweid, they said. Security forces fired tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters.

The shooting came as police fought protesters in Suez and Ismailia, two cities straddling the Suez Canal that separates Sinai from the rest of Egypt.

Bedouin, among nomadic tribes in Egypt's northeast Sinai region, often complain of neglect by the government and of police harrassment.

Egypt police show restraint, counter vandalism

Egypt police show restraint, counter vandalism

Magdy Rady
Egypt's Cabinet Spokesman

A spokesman of Egypt's Cabinet Magdy Rady said Thursday that Egyptian police are showing maximum restraint in dealing with anti-government protesters in Egypt but are intervening "strongly" in Suez in response to vandalism

"The police is keeping self restraint to the maximum but when there is an illegitimate way of expression or destruction of property they interfere," Magdy Rady told Reuters, speaking after violent clashes with police in the eastern city of Suez.

The government was urging youths on the street to be aware of the Muslim Brotherhood and others exploiting protests for "hidden agendas", he said.