Fearing backlash, Morsi skips funerals for slain Egyptian soldiers

CAIRO  — Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi steered away from the military funeral for 16 border policemen killed in an attack over the weekend after an angry mob attacked Prime Minister Hesham Kandil.

Presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali told the press that Morsi did not attend because security measures would have made the event less popular, independent journalist Nadia el-Magd reported via Twitter.

The president did not honor the fallen “after being advised not to for security reasons,” Al Ahram reported. Earlier in the day, Al Masry Al Youm reported that Kandil was assaulted and had his car vandalized by angry mourners.

Some mourners pelted Kandil with shoes. Others held their shoes high, pointing their soles at him in a gesture of contempt, before he was whisked away by aides.

Mourners attending the funeral prayed for the dead at a mosque in an east Cairo suburb on Tuesday. The coffins, wrapped in Egypt’s red-white-and-black flag, were later taken to a nearby square for a military ceremony.

Egyptian protesters on Monday night blamed Israel for the attack. Dozens of demonstrators rallied outside the Israeli ambassador’s residence, chanting “Oh Zionist, oh cowards, Egyptian blood is not cheap,” “Retribution, retribution, they shot our siblings with bullets.” They called for the expulsion of the  “ambassador of swine” Yaakov Amitai, Al Bawaba reported.

The military says 35 gunmen attacked an Egyptian border post, killing the 16 before commandeering an armored vehicle they later used to try to storm across the border into Israel. It has accused Palestinians from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip of aiding the gunmen.

Some among the mourners chanted slogans against Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, a parent movement of the militant Hamas group.