ISMAILIA - Police in the Suez Canal City of Ismailia arrested four senior truckers as a 12-day strike by truck owners turned violent late Tuesday amid reports of negotations for a compromise. The four men have been charged with allegedly murdering a truck owner, identified as el-Assmar Mohamed Abuh, and damaging his lorry when he refused to join the strike and drove his car to deliver a feed shipment to a fish farm on the outskirts of Ismaila, prosecutors said. "The four suspects have pelted the truck's cockpit with stones, smashing el-Assmar's head while he was driving his car on the Ismailia-Sharquia Motorway on Tuesday night. El-Assmar lost control, and his lorry plunged into a grove and flipped over more than once," the prosecutors said in a statement. It said that Mohamed Ismail Hattata, Mohamed Abdu Assasah, Adel el-Beltagui, and el-Garaihi Haraat were also accused of allegedly instigating driver unrest in Ismailia and promoting violence against non-striking lorry drivers.The victim's brother was seriously injured in the attack, the police said. Meanwhile, three striking drivers were arrested in the Delta Governorate of Beheira for clashing with police, who tried to disperse them while trying to force their colleagues to join the strike, which started on December 10 to protest against a law that would ban thevehicles by 2011 for safety reasons. The Government says the law was prompted to combat an increase in road accidents. According to the Ministry of Transport, out of the 11,421 road accidents last year, some 1,634 were caused by heavy transportation, including trailers, on highways. Consumers have complained that the strike has pushed up the prices of cement and cooking gas. The truck owners, who say the new law will drive them out of business, vowed to continue the strike until their demands were met by the Government. In the meantime, violence escalated in el-Gharbiya Governorate in the Nile Delta as the strike continued, police said. Angry drivers threw heavy rocks at trailer drivers who refused to strike, they said, adding that the striking drivers threatened to burn the lorries of their non-striking colleagues. However, the police warned that they would arrest drivers if they attempted to block non-striking truckers from picking up, or delivering cargo on time.
