3 dead and 1049 wounded in Israeli embassy attack

Egyptian Protesters attack Israeli embassy Egypt declared a state of high alert Saturday as police clashed with protesters who raided a building housing the Israeli embassy in Cairo, prompting Washington to call for protection of the mission. Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers backed by armoured cars were rushed to the embassy district after US President Barack Obama called on Egypt to protect the Israeli embassy.  The Ministry of Health in Cairo has confirmed the death of three people. According to the al Jizr police station, a further 1049 people were wounded, including 44 policemen.
Egypt's Interior Minister Mansur al-Eissawy declared a state of high alert and convened an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis.
Egypt has since confirmed that those involved in the embassy attack will by tried by an emergency state security court.
"Egypt affirms its total commitment to respecting international conventions, including the protection of all (diplomatic) missions" Information Minister Osama Heikal said in a televised message.
He also said that authorities would apply "all articles of the emergency law to ensure safety" following the embassy attac
Early Saturday, Israel's ambassador flew out of the country, heading back to Israel, sources at Cairo airport told AFP.  Embassy sources told AFP that the deputy chief of Israel's embassy in Cairo is to remain there for the time.
"We left the deputy ambassador to keep up contact with the Egyptian government," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Egyptian state television reported that ambassador Yitzhak Levanon met with a general of the ruling military's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces before his departure, and that the ambassador appeared "anxious and even scared."
Levanon had only recently come back to Cairo from vacation in Israel as protests raged outside the embassy since last month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the mob attack a "serious incident" and an unnamed official warned it was a "painful blow to peace" between Egypt and the Jewish state.
Obama on Friday made his call as he spoke by telephone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said in a statement.
"The president expressed his great concern about the situation at the embassy, and the security of the Israelis serving there," it said.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak called US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta early Saturday to request help protecting their embassy in Cairo, a statement from his office said.  Hours after the violence broke out, Egyptian soldiers backed by armoured personel carriers massed near the embassy as power was cut to street lights in several blocks around the mission.
"Six people were actually trapped in the embassy and there was a real concern for their lives," an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.   "In the end they were successfully rescued by Egyptian commandos."
Protesters were still playing cat-and-mouse with police throughout the night, amid clouds of tear gas and smoke from burning tyres.
Thousands outside the embassy had jostled to grab the documents fluttering down from one of the top floors of the highrise where the embassy is located.
The documents, in Arabic, English and Hebrew, bore the watermarks of the embassy. They ranged from requests to Egyptian authorities for weapons permits for embassy security to internal correspondence on vacations.
State television quoted an interior ministry official as saying that "foreign hands" were behind the violence. Egypt's rulers often blame foreigners for unrest in the country.
Earlier Friday, thousands of protesters had massed in Tahrir Square to demand reforms and an end to military trials of civilians. About 1,000 people left the square and marched to the Israeli embassy several kilometres (miles) away.  Chanting "Lift your head high, you are an Egyptian," they demolished the security wall outside the mission with sledge-hammers and a hefty metal bar, as military police looked on.
Protesters also scaled the building’s walls, replacing the Israeli flag with the flags of Egypt and Palestine.  Protesters set fire to two police trucks around the embassy building, and pelted anti-riot police with stones, an AFP journalist witnessed.  They grabbed several helmets and shields from police and at least one teargas gun, while others invaded and damaged a small police station in the neighbourhood.
Tensions have been high between Egypt and Israel since the 18th of August, when Israeli forces killed five Egyptian policeman on the Israel-Egypt border.  That incident followed a series of Negev desert ambushes by militants that killed eight Israelis.  At the time, outraged Egyptians staged huge protests outside the embassy and called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. Egypt has asked Israel for an official apology and demanded a probe into the deaths.  Since president Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February after a popular revolt, activists have called for a revision of the peace treaty. Mubarak was seen as one of Israel's closest regional allies.