A state of emergency was declared on Wednesday after Egyptian security forces violently broke up sit-in camps of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo. Officials say
at least 281 have been killed nationwide.
There are conflicting casualty reports. According to the Health Ministry, at least 281 people including 43 policemen have been killed and 2,001 injured in Wednesday's violence nationwide.
"The dead are both from police and civilians," said the ministry's spokesman, Hamdi Abdel Karim.
However, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad claimed that
as many as 2,000 people had been killed and 10,000 injured in the police operation.
Both major protest camps in Cairo were taken control of by police, with the second one being seized about an hour after a curfew was announced.
The 7:00 pm-to-6:00 am curfew was imposed in major cities including Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. It will last for the next month, or until further notice.
Following the violence, a month-long state of emergency was announced in the country, with the Armed Forces authorized to support the Interior Ministry in imposing it.
On Wednesday morning, Egyptian police sent in armored bulldozers to break up the protest outside Rabaa al-Adawiya in eastern Cairo, where one of the Muslim Brotherhood camps is located. Police also broke up a second protest site outside the Cairo University campus in Giza in the city's west.
Helicopters were circling over the protest sites, using loudspeakers to call on the demonstrators to leave. Security troops used tear gas against protesters, and there were also reports of intensive gunfire in the area.
Protesters are also accusing the military of ordering snipers to shoot at them from the rooftops of buildings surrounding the sit-in camps.
"It is nasty inside, they are destroying our tents. We can't breathe inside and many people are in hospital," protester Murad Ahmed described the camp crackdown.
Police and military forces had previously cordoned off the camps with barbed wire, leaving corridors for protesters to leave.
Reuters cited an eyewitness as saying that army soldiers shot pro-Morsi activists in the legs as they were trying to join the Rabaa protest camp. Some of the supporters of the ousted president threw stones and petrol bombs at the troops, the news agency said.
Egypt's Interior Ministry said in a statement that Morsi supporters who attempted to remain in the protest camps would face prosecution.
Police cleared the smaller camp in Giza in about two hours.
Egyptian state media said at least 200 people were arrested during the security forces' breakup of the sit-in camps. Police said protesters had weapons, including automatic firearms, ammunition and gas cylinders.
The Egyptian government called on the Muslim Brotherhood to "listen to the voice of reason" and halt violence, saying it holds the movement's leaders responsible for the bloodshed during the dispersal of protest camps Wednesday.
"The government holds these leaders fully responsible for any spilt blood, and for all the rioting and violence going on," the government said in a statement.
Mohammed el-Beltagy, a senior Muslim Brotherhood leader, called on the police and army troops to mutiny against their commanders and for Egyptians to take to the streets in protest against military rule.
"Oh, Egyptian people, your brothers are in the square... Are you going to remain silent until the genocide is completed?" AP quoted him as saying. El-Beltagy is wanted by authorities to answer allegations of inciting violence.
Hours later El-Beltagy was arrested along with a number of other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, Reuters reported, citing a security source.
Egypt's Interior Ministry said it intercepted phone calls from Muslim Brotherhood leaders instructing their supporters to attack police stations. The planned assaults have been foiled, the ministry said.
As the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood continued in Cairo, supporters of the movement took to the streets elsewhere in the country. Pro-Morsi demonstrations were reported in the cities of Alexandria, Aswan, Beni Suef, Kafr El-Zayat, Minya and Asyut.
In Minya, about 1,000 pro-Morsi protesters set fire to a church before being dispersed with tear gas, security sources reported.
The European Union on Wednesday called on Egypt's military government to exercise restraint in dealing with the protesters, saying that the incoming reports of numerous deaths were "extremely worrying."
Supporters of President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government, which came to power in elections after the 2011 Egyptian revolution, are demanding his reinstatement.
The Egyptian military seized power in a coup last month after massive popular protests against Morsi's government, as the country slid into anarchy and economic chaos.
At least 250 people have died in clashes in the weeks following the military coup.
Reader Comments
When Mubarak finally called in the Army in, it side with the people, as it is comprised of the people unlike the corrupt secret police and security forces. While the leadership of the army is deeply influenced by serving 30 under a dictator, the base of the army is The People and will not follow orders to kill their own brothers.
After the revolution (as in all revolutions) there was a power vacuum in Egypt and the next most psychopathic group rushed to fill it. This was of course the Muslim Brotherhood. The were the best organized, homogeneous group and could therefore achieve a majority in the first free election against an array of various little political splinter groups, untrained in democracy about how to get a majority.
At the same time, just as you suspected Honda, massive amounts of money from the western powers flooded into Egypt to pay thugs to keep creating mayhem and to destabilize the country.
Keep in mind the revolution was a total nightmare for Israel who controls US middle eastern politics. The last thing Israel wanted is to have a free Egypt that may have other ideas about what stance to have towards Palestine.
Morsi then quickly worked to reinstate himself as the next dictator under the old guise of bringing "stability" to the country. But the Egyptians were not that stupid and saw him and his Muslim Brotherhood for what they were. The next psychopathic rulers.
The Egyptians, who gained a lot of confidence as a people by the successful ousting of Mubarak do not want to live under another dictatorship, especially not a muslim one. The Majority of the Egyptians do not want a muslim Egypt. So they again demonstrated against Morsi.
Before the so called recent 'military coup', 30 million Egyptians had been on the street asking for his removal - of a total population of 80 million. Percentage wise that is more people than in America go and vote. Again, the army sided with the people and removed Morsi.
Now the Muslim Brotherhood is not as peaceful as the rest of the Egyptian people. They are revolting agains the the army much more violently so the whole situation escalates. That is also said in the RT video clip above.
In 2011 there were no major casualties on the side of the security forces. Almost ALL (close to a thousand) fatal casualties were on the protesters side. The whole revolution was run under the principles of non-violence, which was of course ultimately the wining strategy.
The Muslim Brotherhood sees that differently. They are NOT nonviolent and they do NOT want to give up the power they had for a brief moment and they are even ready to attack Christians and have done so.
The army, while corrupt and brutal in their structure, are still protecting the people.
But it is also still the old Mubarak-era security forces doing the heave lifting against the now muslim protesters. They killed peaceful protesters before, so now they are even quicker to kill violent ones.
All those details of course are completely lost in the MSM who is only interested to show a country deteriorating.
Egypt is in a very fragile situation right now. Indeed there is a real chance for cicil war if western powers keep supporting the wrong (and most pathological) side - as they always do.
Then again the majority of peaceful Egyptians that already went through a lot and that is determined to create a free democratic Egypt should not be underestimated either.
Against humanity, a majority who are fighting for sociopolitical change, who's voice is being denied and not heard. All they want is a voice, all they want is change that will allow justice, enough money to provide safety and security, a roof over there heads and food for there families. Some say this is a privilege, this is a basic human right,.