of 2011. they welcomed those comments by the secretary of state. no doubt it has complicated matters here further. beyond the comments of the secretary of state, the u.s. state department is engaged in some intense negotiations in diplomacy here on the ground to try and resolve the ongoing tensions between supporters of the ousted president and the interim government. deputy secretary of state william burns is here. he s extended his stay indefinitely to try to resolve this issue. now you have two republican senators, john mccain and lindsey graham, who arrived today in cairo to throw their weight behind u.s. and other international efforts to try and mediate the tensions between these two camps that have kree yatsed a lot of tension here in egypt and has a lot of people concerned about the future and stability of this country. all right, ayman mohyeldin in cairo. thanks as always. of course, there are politics to all this. howard dean is next. he s in the guest spot. so. [ gasps ]
nbc s eamon mohyeldin is live. where are we at right now? reporter: let s start off with what began on friday and the small town outside of cairo there was a religious squirmish that quickly escalated into a gun fight in which four christians were killed. on sunday christian worshipers came to pay their respects and mourn the death of those in a large funeral procession at the main cathedral that turned violence. according to sources and eyewitnesses as that was wrapping up, the crowd of christian mourners came under attack by those throwing stones, molotov cocktails and they then in return opened fire on the crowds. the police came but the question on everyone s mind including lawmakers as well as the political opposition is why did the ministry of interior and police force not secure sunday s funeral procession when they
we had a very spirited discussion on the subject of the overflights. anything that supports president assad is problematic and i made it very clear to the prime minister that the overflights from iran are, in fact, helping to sustain president assad and his regime. those opposed to bashar al assad s government are struggling to maintain a united coalition after the head of the u.s.-backed opposition resigned. the new york times reports arab nations and turkey have sharply stepped up aid to the rebels with the help of the cia. for more on that, nbc s eamon mohyeldin joins us. as you just mentioned there,
state tv. assad attended prayer in a damascus mosque, marking the start of a muslim holiday. his first appearance in over a month. eamon mohyeldin, what is the latest? president assad appeared at morning prayers. he was flanked by members of his regime. one person absent and triggered a lot of speculation as to where he could be is the voice president. this individual is to some extent respected by many. he has not been heard from or seen of in the last several weeks. the fsa has claimed he has defected. we have not heard any claims from him personally or from others that suggest he has left the country. the syrian government insists he
foreign correspondent eamon mohyeldin and mike viqueira at the white house. ayman, you say today s attack is tactically significant. tactically, you ve taken out the deputy minister of defense, the defense minister and a senior military officer all within the command and control structure of the military at the tip and spear of these. 0 rations to suppress the uprising. have you disrupted that to the extent that the military can not trust of who is among its midst. how did they penetrate the inner circle of the regime to carry out such a lethal explosion. even if they cannot meet to discuss out who carry out operations you get the sense of the kind of paranoia that can infiltrate the inner circles of the regime. from a psychological point of view that somebody was able to