DEBKAfile, Sinai militias cut Egypt-Israel trade ties amid declining security
Sunday night, Oct. 9, a Coptic demonstration outside the state TV station to protest the authorities' failure to protect their churches from radical Islamic attacks ended with 24 dead of whom 17 were Copts and more than 200 injured. The Copts, who make up more than one-tenth of Egypt's 85 million inhabitants, were then attacked by hoodlums wielding clubs, stones and machetes. But the security forces turned their guns on the Copts and drove tanks against them – not the rowdies shouting Islam, Islami!