Senior Egypt Pro-government Cleric Escapes Shooting

CAIRO, (Pakistan Point News - 4th August, 2016) - Gunmen opened fire at former Egyptian Mufti Ali Gomaa in a Cairo suburb on Friday, missing the pro-government cleric but wounding a bodyguard, the interior ministry said. Gomaa was on his way to a mosque near his house in the October 6 suburb when the assailants hiding in a park started shooting fire, the ministry said. His guards exchanged fire with the gunmen and forced them to flee, it said, adding that one of the guards was lightly wounded. Gomaa later told Egyptian state television of how he had taken shelter behind a mosque wall when the shooting started. After the attack, he "conducted the Friday prayers as a message to these people", the cleric said in a telephone interview. "This attempt is a message aimed at creating fear," he said.