Security forces and pro-government gunmen killed four protesters April 10 in Syria's port city of Banias. The army had sealed off the city as hundreds of protesters gathered. State television reported that nine soldiers were killed in an ambush near the city. (AP [2], April 10) In Egypt, several hundred protesters staged an overnight vigil in Cairo's Tahrir Square in defiance of a military crackdown, and say they will not be moved. The protesters, who have barricaded the square with a burnt-out army truck, barbed wire and beams chanted against military chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who has headed the country since president Hosni Mubarak was ousted. One person was killed and several wounded the previous day when the army tried to clear the square, although the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said the shooting was the work of pro-Mubarak provocateurs. (Middle East Online [3], CSM [4], April 10)
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