CAIRO Ñ The U.S. ambassador to Egypt was trapped in a shoot-out
between security forces and suspected assassins Sunday in the Sinai Peninsula.
The convoy of Ambassador David Welch was traveling from Sharm e-Sheik to Suez. Nobody was
hurt, Middle East Newsline reported.
The episode was reported amid rising anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle
East. Several U.S. allies, including Egypt and Bahrain, have moved to
restrict anti-U.S. rallies.
Arab diplomatic sources said a pick-up truck fired shots toward Welch's car and Egyptian security forces returned
fire.
Egyptian officials said security forces fired warning shots to scare
off the pick-up truck, which escaped the scene after it entered the convoy
and drove behind Welch's car.
A witness told the London-based Al Hayat daily on Monday that an
Egyptian security officer guarding the ambassador fired shots toward the
pick-up truck at a gas station. The truck veered off the road and into a
large rock.
The Paris-based Radio Monte Carlo said shots were fired from the truck.
The radio said security forces did not capture the attackers.
The U.S. embassy in Cairo reported what a spokesman termed was an
"unclear incident" as the ambassador was being driven through the peninsula.
The spokesman said an unidentified vehicle entered Welch's convoy and then
later encountered the ambassador at a gas station. The spokesman did not
report that any shots were fired.
In Manama, the kingdom urged Bahrainis not to burn the U.S. flag or
shout anti-American slogans during demonstrations for the Palestinians. On
Friday, a pro-Palestinian demonstration quickly turned into a rally against
the U.S. military presence in Bahrain.
"Burning the flag of a friendly country such as the United States, with
which Bahrain has friendly and cooperative relations and shares a number of
joint interests, harms those relations and interests and is seen as abusive
to the people of the United States," a Bahraini Foreign Ministry official
said. "Citizens should avoid such practices which are alien to the
traditions and customs of Bahraini society, and which harm the interests of
the kingdom of Bahrain and its people, and foster feelings of enmity and
hatred between countries generally."
