Egyptian protesters killed in attack - Middle East live blog 11.37am: Bahrain: Ed Husain, of the US Council on Foreign Relations, who attracted a good deal of ridicule with his recent tweets in support of the Bahraini government, has now written an article in the New York Times about his efforts to "know the monarchy's side of the story." Issandr el Amrani of the Arabist blog has posted a response: The most insidious thing about Husain's writing on Bahrain is this faux act he does of pretending no one understands anything about the place, the regional setting in which the conflict is happening, and his insinuation that the attention on human rights abuses has created a warped view of the situation. Of course the world understands the situation: the US basically endorsed the Saudi intervention, it's hardly raised by the EU, David Cameron gave a great welcome to the crown prince a few months ago, etc. The argument for a negotiated outcome is a strong one given the reality that the Khalifas' supporters will not allow them to fall. But even accounting for radicals in the opposition and Iranian influence (which is disputed), the terms Husain presents are essentially that the opposition has to agree to the Khalifas' terms, while the latter should be under no obligation to to yield or be held accountable. Ed Husain is taking the Khalifas' spin hook, line and sinker - and most surprising of all this appears to be genuine naiveté on his part. The sad thing is, the Khalifas - try as they might - could not buy that kind of PR. 11.28am: Egypt: The Muslim Brotherhood's candidate for president, Mohamed Morsi, has also suspended his campaign in the light of the bloodshed in Cairo. Earlier today, another Islamist candidate, Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, suspended his campaign. The party's official Twitter feed also says it is boycotting a meeting with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. 11.08am: Egypt: Al-Jazeera has a photo of the protest scene in Cairo this morning. 11.04am: Egypt: A leading Islamist candidate in Egypt's presidential election, Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, has today suspended campaign events until further notice in protest at the way the authorities handled the anti-army protest in Cairo, a spokesman said. "Anything related to campaigning today including voluntary activities on the ground is being suspended," Ali al-Bahnasawy, his media adviser, told Reuters. 11.02am: Egypt: A strongly-worded tweet from Egyptian Nobel laureate and former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei. He describes this morning's killings as a "massacre" and suggests the government could be "in cahoots" with the attackers. 10.53am: Syria: As well as the 15 members of the security services killed in a rebel ambush in Aleppo (see 10.06am), six have been killed in Harasta, in the Damascus suburbs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, al-Jazeera's Rula Amin tweets. 10.49am: Iran: Coinciding with the report that ranks Iran at No3 among the world's most-censoring countries (see 9.25am), the EAWorldView blog notes the opening yesterday of the 25th Tehran International Book Fair. Although the fair claims to attract more than half a million visitors a day, EAWorldView says: "Many Iranian publishers have shut or are in a difficult situation because of economic problems and/or censorship. And some of the high-profile publishers who remain will not be at the fair: outlets such as Cheshmeh and Sales have been banned. 10.22am: Egypt: Here are a few of the latest tweets on the events in Cairo. There is some speculation on Twitter that the clashes may be used as an excuse to postpone the presidential election. 10.10am: Egypt: More details on the attack in Cairo this morning, from the Egypt Independent: Eyewitnesses reported the initial attack in the early hours of the day by unknown men using Molotov cocktails and bird shot, coming from the direction of the nearby Nour Mosque, toward the Abbasseya Square sit-in, which has been there since Friday night. Al-Masry Al-Youm also reported that these unidentified men fired tear gas at the protesters in Abbasseya. It also reported that there was gunfire at the scene. Protesters hurled stones at the sit-in attackers. While the field hospital at the sit-in treated urgent cases of injured protesters, more critical cases were transferred to the nearby Ain Shams University Hospital, also known as Demerdash. The streets leading to the sit-in have been blocked by military police since clashes erupted earlier on Saturday night. Activists voiced concerns about security forces refraining from protecting the sit-in, suggesting their implication in the attack. The sit-in began on Friday night when a group of supporters of former presidential candidate and Salafi preacher Hazem Salah Abu Ismail headed from Tahrir Square to Abbasseya, which houses the Defense Ministry, to protest the disqualification of the conservative preacher from the race. 10.06am: Syria: A rebel ambush in Aleppo, in northern Syria, has killed 15 members of the security forces today, including two colonels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters. The Britain-based group said two rebels were also killed in the clashes, another breach of the UN-backed ceasefire. Meanwhile, the state news agency Sana reports that 168 citizens "involved in the recent events" but who did not kill anyone, have handed themselves in. It says they were from Homs, Idlib and Damascus suburbs. The report states: They were released to go back to normal life after pledging not to take up arms again or take part in vandalising public and private properties. More than 2000 people turned themselves in and handed their weapons over in the past month. 10.03am: Egypt: Who exactly were the "unidentified assailants" who attacked the protesters' camp in Cairo this morning? At present we don't know, though a report from the Associated Press suggests the security forces were not particularly eager to stop them attacking protesters: Unidentified assailants have consistently attacked protesters around the defence ministry, with troops and police deployed in the area not attempting to intervene. In past attacks, Egypt's pro-military state media said the assailants were residents angered by the disruption caused by the protests to life in their neighborhood. But pro-democracy activists maintain the assailants operate with the blessing of the police or the military, and that they may even be on their payroll. Wednesday's attack came hours after the protesters outside the defense ministry said they had caught an off-duty army officer who came to the area to look around, an act that must have been taken by the generals as an insult to the armed forces. 9.53am: Syria: Syrian government forces killed at least 95 civilians and burned or destroyed hundreds of houses during a two-week offensive in northern Idlib governorate shortly before the ceasefire, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The group carried out a field investigation in Idlib in late April gathering evidence of the attacks, which it says took place in late March and early April, Anna Neistat, associate director for programme and emergencies at HRW, said: While diplomats argued over details of Annan's peace plan, Syrian tanks and helicopters attacked one town in Idlib after another. Everywhere we went, we saw burnt and destroyed houses, shops, and cars, and heard from people whose relatives were killed. It was as if the Syrian government forces used every minute before the ceasefire to cause harm. The report, "They burned my heart": war crimes in Northern Idlib during peace plan negotiations, says that the majority of executions took place during the attack on Taftanaz, a town of about 15,000 inhabitants north-east of Idlib city on 3 and 4 April. A survivor of the security forces' execution of 19 members of the Ghazal family in Taftanaz described to HRW finding the bodies of his relatives: We first found five bodies in a little shop next to the house. They were almost completely burnt. We could only identify them by a few pieces of clothes that were left. Then we entered the house and in one of the rooms found nine bodies on the floor, next to the wall. There was a lot of blood on the floor. On the wall, there was a row of bullet marks. The nine men had bullet wounds in their backs, and some in their heads. Their hands were not tied, but still folded behind. Human Rights Watch has previously documented and condemned serious abuses by opposition fighters in Syria, including abuses in Taftanaz. It said today: These abuses [by opposition fighters] should be investigated and those responsible brought to justice. These abuses by no means justify, however, the violations committed by the government forces, including summary executions of villagers and the large-scale destruction of villages. 9.39am: Syria: A Sky News team had an interesting encounter with armed Syrian police yesterday after their camera was seized, its foreign editor Tim Marshall writes. A police officer carrying an AK-47 wrenched a camera from the journalists, despite their best efforts to resist, after they filmed a small demonstration in the heart of Damascus. Two of the protesters calling for the release of political prisoners were taken away. Marshall said he ran after the police officer with the camera shouting "Ali Baba! Ali Baba!," which he describes as slang for thief. After he saw two of his colleagues being escorted into the nearby court building complex, Marshall followed them inside. He describes what happened next: The police were insisting that Nathan delete the footage we had. The atmosphere was tense. I pointed out that under the UN agreement the media had the the right to unhindered access. Some of the more mature minds realised that they were dealing with a situation which went way beyond a little local difficulty with some foreigners and phone calls were made. I took the opportunity to seek out the officer I had shouted at. We both apologised and agreed we were only doing our jobs. There were handshakes all round. Within minutes, we were being driven across town to see the Damascus police chief. Over tea, he agreed we could keep our equipment and our footage which we subsequently broadcast. "You are free to show what you like, just tell the truth," he said. In that sentence, you can hear the frustration in government circles and among their supporters that no-one in the foreign media is telling their side of the story, that millions of people here want the armed uprising to stop. Marshall expresses some sympathy for the government perspective, adding: The government here is convinced that the western media is against it, and in that there is some truth. Not enough attention is paid to the atrocities committed by the opposition forces which have taken up arms. Both sides are engaged in what seems to me to be a fight to the death, with the middle ground of those who believe in dialogue, increasingly isolated. 9.25am: Three Middle Eastern states - Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia - figure in a list of the world's 10 most-censored countries compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). In the report - issued to mark World Press Freedom Day tomorrow - Syria ranks third, Iran fourth and Saudi Arabia eighth. The CPJ says: The 10 most restricted countries employ a wide range of censorship techniques, from the sophisticated blocking of websites and satellite broadcasts by Iran to the oppressive regulatory systems of Saudi Arabia and Belarus; from the dominance of state media in North Korea and Cuba to the crude tactics of imprisonment and violence in Eritrea, Uzbekistan, and Syria. One trait they have in common is some form of authoritarian rule. Their leaders are in power by dint of monarchy, family dynasty, coup d'état, rigged election, or some combination thereof ... Disputed legitimacy of leadership is at the heart of censorship and media crackdowns in many places. Syria has long been a tightly controlled country, but last year, when regular demonstrations began to call for the ouster of Assad, foreign correspondents were restricted and locals who reported on the uprisings were arrested; the dangerous task of reporting on Assad's brutal military response was left to courageous citizen journalists and foreign reporters who sneaked into the country. 9.00am: Good morning. Welcome to Middle East live. Throughout the day we shall be monitoring the unrest in Syria and Bahrain while keeping an eye on other countries in the region too. The main story this morning is the killing of protesters by "unknown assailants" during a dawn attack in Cairo. Egypt Security officials say five or more protesters have been killed by armed attackers near the defence ministry building in Cairo. They say the attack at dawn this morning was carried out by unidentified assailants who set upon several hundred protesters who have camped out in the area for days to call for an end to military rule. Officials say at least 50 protesters were injured in the attack, in which the assailants used rocks, clubs and firebombs, the Associated Press reports. Many of the protesters are supporters of the Salafist preacher, Hazem Abu Ismail, who was recently disqualified from standing in the presidential election. UN member states have so far offered only 150 monitors for Syria out of the 300 planned, according to peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous. Syria has also refused visas for three of them, the BBC reports. In a move to tighten sanctions against Syria and Iran, the US has announced new measures against foreign firms, banks or individuals that engage in "evasive and deceptive activities." Bahrain Riot police again used teargas and stun grenades to rout an anti-government demonstration in the market area of the capital, Manama.