A dozen masked attackers fired birdshot late Saturday at protesters who have camped outside Egypt’s presidential palace in Cairo for the past month.Several people were wounded along with security forces standing watch nearby, witnesses said. It was the latest in a series of shootings of protesters in Egypt.Paramedic Mohammed Sultan put the total number of wounded in the attack at 15, including nine members of the security forces and six protesters.The witnesses said attackers also threw Molotov cocktails at protesters’ tents, setting some on fire. Footage on Egyptian TV stations showed more people coming to join the protests.The sit-in was started December 4 by opponents of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. They are demanding the annulment of Egypt’s new Islamist-backed constitution. The document deeply polarized Egyptians but passed by a 64 percent “yes” vote in a referendum in which around 33 percent of voters participated. Critics called the process flawed.The political conflict has been accompanied by street violence. At least 10 people died in clashes outside the palace on December 5 that broke out when supporters of Morsi attacked the sit-in. Some were reportedly killed by gunfire.On December 31, gunmen shot and critically wounded a well-known activist at the site of another sit-in in downtown Cairo’s Tahrir square. Police said they arrested a cafe owner who told them that he fired on the square after people manning makeshift checkpoints there searched his car and shot at him.The current attack comes two weeks before the anniversary of the January 25 start of the 2011 uprising that overthrew Mubarak. Activists opposed to Morsi are expected to organize large protests that day. Earlier Saturday, a Cairo court ordered a religious TV program hosted by a fiery preacher off the air on charges of libeling and defaming a well-known actress, one of three legal reverses that day suffered by Islamists in cases related to the media.
