Unknown assailants kill 20 at Cairo protestBy BBC | Wednesday, May 2  2012 at  10:49

Unknown assailants have killed at least twenty people at a protest against Egypt's ruling generals near the defence ministry in Cairo, officials say.

Witnesses described how the attackers set on them at dawn using rocks, clubs, firebombs and firing shotguns.

Up to 100 people were also reportedly injured and are being treated at a field clinic in the Abbasiya district.

Many of the protesters are supporters of a Salafist preacher barred from standing in the presidential election.

Hazem Abu Ismail was disqualified because his mother held dual Egyptian-US citizenship, violating rules laid out in a constitutional declaration approved after an uprising forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says the strong suspicion is that the men who attacked Mr Abu Ismail's supporters were hired by the government to break up a demonstration that has now being going on for several days.