Saturday, September 10, 2011

Update 2 From Cairo

Here’s a report from France 24 about yesterday’s mob attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Pay special attention to what one of the rioters says to the reporter at about 0:18 to 0:23 in the video.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this clip:


Below the jump are some excerpts from an AP report about the rescue of six embassy personnel by Egyptian commandos:
Egypt commandos save 6 Israelis in embassy attack

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli guards drew their handguns, convinced it was their final moments as they hid in a barricaded safe room from Egyptian rioters just outside the door, ransacking rooms of the embassy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials depicted a tense stretch of hours as they watched on security cameras and listened in on conference calls with six Israeli embassy guards caught in the facility as protesters rioted on the streets outside — and broke in.

In the end, Egyptian commandos made their way in and rescued the six after flurried phone calls between Israeli, American and Egyptian officials to try to resolve the unrest.

In a speech late Saturday, Netanyahu said one of the six, the embassy security chief named Yonatan, spoke by phone to an operations room in Jerusalem from their hiding place.

“The rioters had penetrated the building, penetrated the office, and only one door separated between the rioters and Yonatan and his friends,” Netanyahu said. Yonatan told the officials in the operations room, “If something happens to me I ask you tell my parents face to face and not over the phone.”

Netanyahu said he told him, “Yonatan, hang in there,” promising Israel would do everything it could to get them home.

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