Egypt caught in spiral of disaster [View all]

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Many things that are hard to believe - or explain - happen in Egypt; unfortunately, it all looks more like a spiraling nightmare than a fairy tale in the last year or so. The latest violence on Wednesday, which resulted in at least 74 dead and over 1,000 wounded, and which The New York Times described as "the deadliest soccer riot anywhere in more than 15 years", is a fitting example of that.

The calamity came in the wake of another large brawl on Tuesday, between members of the secular opposition and Muslim Brotherhood supporters who reportedly attempted to block their march against the military government of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Over 70 people were wounded in the clashes. [1]

Both events coincided almost perfectly with the anniversary of another odd episode of recent Egyptian history, the February 2, 2011 attack against the opposition in Tahrir Square by supporters of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on horses and camels. [2] The timing, whether a coincidence or not, is unlikely to be that important, but all three events emphasize the unpredictability of the domestic currents in Egypt, and raise suspicions of an invisible hand trying to stir those currents, with a varying success rate.

Other events in this broadly-defined "odd" series include the bombings of the gas pipeline leading into Israel and Jordan and the mob attack against the Israeli Embassy in Cairo in September 2011.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NB03Ak05.html