Egypt's military rulers have blamed Christian protesters and “enemies of the revolution” for triggering the clashes that left 26 dead, almost all of them Christians. The accusation was sure to enflame the fury within and beyond the Christian community over the worst violence since Hosni Mubarak's ouster. At a lengthy news conference Wednesday to present their version of the events, generals from the Supreme Council of Armed Forces showed footage of priests and a Coptic Christian activist they accused of “instigating” the violence on Sunday night with calls for demonstrations and storming the state television building. He accused protesters of “savage” attacks on the military. Many of those killed were crushed when armored military vehicles sped through crowds of protesters and ran them over. Other victims had gunshot wounds. The clashes outside the state television building were the worst between the military and protesters in the eight months since Egypt's uprising and has put the ruling generals on the spot. In front of more than 50 reporters, Maj. Gen. Adel Emara, a member of the ruling council and deputy defense minister, tried to clear the military of any blame in the killings. He denied troops opened fire at protesters, claiming their weapons did not even have live ammunition. He said it was not in “the dictionary of the armed forces to run over bodies ... even when battling our enemy.” Emara said a minority of protesters were peaceful, but a more violent, armed crowd joined the demonstration and began attacking a unit of about 300 soldiers, armed only with anti-riot gear. Meanwhile, Egyptian warplanes are patrolling the Sinai without Israeli consent, despite a 1979 peace treaty limiting Egypt's military presence in the peninsula, Egypt's air force chief said on Thursday. Parts of the Sinai have been off-limits to Egyptian troops under the terms of the 1979 treaty by which Israel agreed to end its occupation but in recent months the army has deployed reinforcements with Israeli consent to tackle suspected Islamist militants. “Sinai is our land, and we do not need permission to increase our forces on our land,” said General Reda Hafiz in comments carried by the official MENA news agency. “Egyptian planes conduct patrols to secure all Egypt's borders, including the eastern border,” he said. Israeli officials said in August that their government had approved an increase in Egyptian troop numbers in the Sinai after a series of deadly attacks in Israel were blamed on militants operating out of the territory.
