At least two were killed and some 70 injured as presumed Salafists attacked Coptic protesters with sticks, firearms and Molotov cocktails in the Cairo neighborhood of Maspero early on May 15. The Copts fought back with hurled rocks, and police finally intervened with tear gas. The protesters were holding a sit-in in front of the Egyptian state television headquarters to demand justice in the face of growing attacks on their community.

Thousands of Egyptians filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square for a Friday rally May 13 calling for national unity after attacks on Coptic churches, and for solidarity with the Palestinians. Protesters held Egyptian and Palestinian flags, and placards reading in Arabic "No to secterian strife." The "Unity Rally" was called following clashes between Muslims and Christians that left 13 people dead after a church was attacked in Cairo's Imbaba district earlier this week. "If you attack a Christian, you're attacking all Egyptians," said one activist delivering a speech at the podium. "The churches attacked in Imbaba are not less than the mosques attacked in Jerusalem," he said, linking the two themes of the rally. Authorities have arrested 23 presumed Salafist militants in the church attack. (Daily Star, Lebanon, DPA, May 13; al-Masry al-Youm, May 12; BBC News, May 10)

In Syria, army tanks shelled the country's third biggest city, Homs, as security forces continue their nationwide crackdown on weeks of anti-government protests May 11. At least nine people have been killed and dozens wounded in Homs and surrounding villages, activists said. Amateur video footage posted to the Web also appears to show men in plain clothes shooting on the streets of Hama, in central Syria. (BBC News, May 11) In Yemen, security forces also opened fire on protesters in three cities, killing at least nine and wounding scores. In the capital Sanaa, forces fired on a crowd of tens of thousands marching to the cabinet building, killing at least six. In the industrial center Taiz, snipers killed two protesters, while in the Red Sea port of Hudaida, one protester was killed when security forces opened fire on marchers. (Reuters, May 11)

The military began to withdraw from the besieged Syrian city of Daraa on May 5, as more troop were deployed to towns in Homs province. Maj-Gen. Riyad Haddad, announcing the withdrawal form Daraa, did not give any figures of fatalities or detainees among what the Syrian government refers to as "terrorist elements," but he said that 25 soldiers were killed and 177 were wounded in the operation. This statement was denied by activists on social networking sites. At least 16 protesters were reported killed in Homs. Fresh protests were also reported in Hama and Aleppo. On May 6, a total of 27 protesters were reported killed at various locations around the country. (AlJazeera, May 6; Link TV, May 5)

A US drone attack killed two al-Qaeda militants in southern Yemen May 5, days after the apparent killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The apparent target, Anwar al-Awlaki, leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), is said to have narrowly escaped. (Reuters, May 6) Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in th capital Sanaa May 6, releasing red, white and black balloons painted with the message "Leave, Ali," with the hope that they would drift over the presidential palace. Near the palace, President Ali Abdullah Saleh was addressing a mass rally of his supporters, where he denounced his opponents as "outlaws, bandits and murderers." (Global Post, May 6)

Hundreds of Syrian soldiers stormed the Damascus suburb of Saqba and rounded up residents, witnesses said May 5. Sweeps were also reported from the Homs suburb of Rastan, where security forces shot dead at least 17 demonstrators six days earlier. The protests were sparked after 50 local members of the governing Baath Party resigned. Activists say at least 1,000 people have been arrested across the country since then. Among the detained is AlJazeera reporter Dorothy Parvaz.

The lack of reaction to the apparent killing of Osama bin Laden is in some ways more telling than the reaction. For starters, thank goodness, the feds have not issued a terror alert. Politico notes on May 4:

When President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed, there was no color-coded chart in the corner of the TV screen to alert Americans that the government had raised the threat level from yellow to orange.

An explosion ripped through a military vehicle in the southern Yemeni town of Zinjibar May 4, killing five soldiers, while four civilians died in the ensuing firefight. The blast hit the vehicle close to a busy market selling khat, the mildly stimulating leaf (considered haram by al-Qaeda). The blast came hours after an unnamed leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) vowed revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden. "We will take revenge for the death of our Sheikh Osama bin Laden and we will prove this to the enemies of God," the spokesman told AFP, contacted by telephone from Yemen's southern province of Abyand. "The martyrdom of Sheikh Osama does not mean that jihad will end." (AP, AFP, May 4)