Egyptian army kills newspaper chief

Egyptian newspaper chief shot dead by security forces Egyptian security forces have killed the bureau chief of a provincial newspaper, Al-Ahram, on Monday. The military opened fire on a car they thought had attempted to escape from a checkpoint, following the government’s imposition of a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the country, the army said in a statement.
Tamer Abdel Raouf was head of Al-Ahram’s Egyptian bureau in the Buhayra province, north of Cairo.  He was shot dead, and another journalist from Al Gomhuriya was seriously wounded after security forces opened fire on the vehicle they were travelling in.
The curfew does not apply to journalists who are supposedly allowed to travel freely.
In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the army said the car raised suspicion after it was spotted travelling at high speeds during curfew hours, and declined to stop at a checkpoint.
It added, “No excessive gunfire was opened on the car in question nor any killing of those in it intended”.
The curfew is expected to remain in place for the whole of August.  The night-time restrictions were imposed last week following the government’s violent crack-down on supporters of Egypt’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood party, and its leader and ex-president, Mohammed Morsi.