CAIRO: An Egyptian army officer and conscript were killed on Wednesday in a gunfight with Bedouins that broke out when military police tried to remove them from state land in the Suez governorate east of Cairo, security sources said.
A Bedouin was also killed in the clash in a rural area near the southern mouth of the Suez Canal. The sources said the gunfight escalated when other Bedouin arrived, opening fire heavily on a military patrol.
Bedouins, once nomadic but today increasingly settled communities, have complained of neglect by the Cairo government and say tough living conditions have led some of their people to resort to smuggling and other activities considered criminal by the state.
