Raid on Egyptian Island Fuels Discontent With Army, Morsi
Sarah El Sirgany reports for Al-monitor on the Egyptian military's raid of the Nile island of Qursaya. Residents said the raid seemed like an episode out of former ruler Hosni Mubarak’s era.
GIZA — At 5 in the morning on Sunday, Nov. 18, Khaled Mahmoud was with his family and friends guarding a stretch of agricultural land on the Nile island of Qursaya when the military raided the place.
“First they used batons and electric prods. When people resisted, holding on to their land, they used live rounds,” Mahmoud said later in the afternoon. The troops “came in four boats. They were beating every creature in sight, man or animal. They were burning everything they came across.”
Mahmoud had access to a motor boat, into which he jumped with a group of friends, escaping the raid with “screams of pain” in the background.
“There were children sleeping in the shacks. I carried some with me. They were trembling in fear. […] Other [residents] were jumping in the Nile to escape the bullets.”
