CAIRO/ISMAILIA: Masked men set fire to two cars belonging to the consulate of Saudi Arabia in the Egyptian city of Suez yesterday morning, local security sources and the state news agency reported.
Security sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said at least four men threw crude fire bombs at the vehicles. State news agency Mena said the cars were parked in a lot in Suez’s Arbaeen district.
Saudi Arabia has been a strong backer of Egypt since then-army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi toppled former president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood last year. The attack appeared to be the first on Saudi property or personnel in Egypt since then.
Major General Tareq Al Gazar, director of security in the city, said authorities were working to identify the attackers.
The Saudi embassy in Cairo declined to comment.
Tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters have been arrested since Mursi’s overthrow.
One person died from a gunshot wound during clashes between security forces and Brotherhood supporters in the impoverished Materiya district of Cairo last afternoon, the website of state newspaper Al Ahram reported.
The Muslim Brotherhood says it is a peaceful movement but authorities accuse its members of being involved in a Sinai Peninsula-based Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers in the 15 months since Mursi’s overthrow.
Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab allies United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have given Egypt large-scale aid in cash and petroleum products since Mursi was ousted from power.
Pakistani beheaded for smuggling heroin in Saudi
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia yesterday beheaded a Pakistani man convicted of smuggling heroin into the kingdom, the interior ministry said. Butha Mushtaq was the third Pakistan executed on drug charges in Saudi Arabia since October 15.
He was found guilty of smuggling heroin concealed in capsules which he had swallowed, and executed in the capital Riyadh, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. His execution brings to 59 the number of people beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year. Last year, 78 people of various nationalities were executed in the Gulf Arab state.
reuters/AFP
