Scene of the explosion at Mansoura, north of Cairo
At least 14 people are believed to have died in a large explosion that destroyed a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city north of Cairo early Tuesday morning, according to the state news agency and a security official. Some 200 people were injured in the blast.
The Egyptian government accused the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attack. Cabinet spokesman Sherief Shawki said Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi had officially declared the group a terrorist organisation.
The Muslim Brotherhood, however, condemned the attack in an emailed statement from the group’s London press office released hours after the explosion.
“The Muslim Brotherhood condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack on the police headquarters in Mansoura (region),” the statement said.
“The Muslim Brotherhood considers this act as a direct attack on the unity of the Egyptian people and demands an enquiry forthwith so that the perpetrators of this crime may be brought to justice.”
Among the injured from the blast at Daqahliya security headquarters in the Nile Delta province of Mansour, was the police chief of the province General Sami al-Meih.
Most of those killed were policemen inside the security headquarters. Many bodies are still believed to be buried under the debris and the death toll is expected to rise, the official said.
An initial investigation indicated that the explosion was the result of a car bomb.
The attack came a day after an Al-Qaida-inspired group called on police and army to desert or face death at the hands of its fighters.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or the Champions of Jerusalem, said it considers Egyptian troops to be infidels because they answer to the secular-leaning, military-backed government.
The group and others based in the Sinai have been blamed for a surge of attacks against security forces since the July coup that toppled the country’s Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. In response, Egypt’s armed forces launched a military offensive against militants in the Northern Sinai province in August.
Speaking at a public forum on Monday, military spokesman Ahmed Mohammed Ali said so far the operations have resulted in the killing of 184 militants and the arrest of 803 others. He said about 25 percent of those killed and arrested are foreign fighters, but didn’t provide further details.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis is believed to have ties with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, and officials have said other foreign militants have found refuge in Sinai during the ongoing turmoil. – AP, Reuters, dpa
Another former president of Egypt is going on trial. Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist leader who became the country’s first freely elected president only to be ousted by the military after a year in office, faces charges he incited his followers to kill protesters.
The trial is a new landmark in Egypt’s 2 ½ years of turmoil since autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled. Morsi’s supporters have been protesting since he was removed on July 3. Hundreds have been killed in clashes, and authorities have arrested more than 2,000 members from his Muslim Brotherhood. Officials, the media and a broad swath of the public contend the Brotherhood have proven themselves a threat to the country, while the group says the military is crushing democracy.
Here is a look at the case against Morsi and 14 Brotherhood members on trial with him – and the politics around the case.
Q: What are the charges based on?
A: The charges are rooted in violence that erupted during one of the first major protests against Morsi during his year in office. On Dec. 4, some 100,000 people protested outside the presidential palace against Morsi’s decree granting himself sweeping immunity from judicial oversight. The decree allowed his Islamist allies to push a disputed draft of the constitution toward adoption without court challenge.
The protesters demanded he call off a referendum on the draft scheduled days later. Some scuffled with police outside the palace gates. Morsi left the palace from a backdoor, and his convoy was heckled. He later said one of his drivers was injured. A few thousand protesters set up a camp outside the palace while the Muslim Brotherhood called for a “general mobilization” of members.
The next day, Islamists attacked the camp, tearing up tents and beating protesters. Videos at the time showed them marching in military-style lines and chanting, “God is great” and “Morsi’s men are everywhere.”
More anti-Morsi protesters streamed to the scene, and street battles lasted into the early hours of the next day, each side throwing stones and firebombs.
Amid the melee, Brotherhood members abducted protesters and held them in a makeshift room at the palace gates, beating them to confess they were paid thugs, according to later statements by those who were held. The next day, they handed the detainees to the police. A prosecutor later freed them, saying there was no evidence against them but that his Morsi-appointed boss had pressured him to implicate them.
At least 10 people were killed in the battle. One was a journalist who wrote articles critical of Morsi. The Brotherhood claimed all the dead were its members, but the families later said the group pressured them to say their slain relatives belonged to the Brotherhood.
A: Isn’t this just a political show trial?
Q: That’s complicated. Human rights lawyers say on the face of it, this is possibly the strongest case against Morsi. Laywers tried to raise a case against Morsi over the Dec. 5 violence soon after it happened, giving some credibility to arguments it is not purely based on post-coup vengeance. (Under the Morsi-appointed chief prosecutor and justice minister at the time, the attempt went nowhere.)
However, this trial comes as part of the wide crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood aimed at crushing it as a political force as the new military-backed government moves ahead with its own transition plan.
The Brotherhood says the charges are baseless and the planned trial a sham, aimed at giving legal cover to the coup.
There are concerns over how fair the trial will be. Morsi has been held in secret military detention undergoing questioning since his ouster, virtually incommunicado except for two calls with his family and visits by the EU foreign policy chief and an African Union delegation. He has not spoken to his legal team, which says it hasn’t been given documentation on the prosecution’s case.
Another issue reflecting the politics: Trials are selective. No one is prosecuting the military or police over deaths of protesters. Human rights lawyers say officials in office are almost never held to account.
Q: What is the evidence against Morsi?
A: The prosecution’s case has not been made public. Morsi at the time accused the protesters of starting the violence.
In parts of the investigation leaked to the Egyptian press, the head of the police force at the time said he refused to use force to break up the unarmed protesters outside the palace, so Morsi called out his supporters to do so. According to the press reports, the head of the Republican Guards – which protect the palace – said Morsi gave him a one-hour ultimatum to forcefully break up the sit-in. The Guards chief said he asked for more time to disperse it peacefully, and one of Morsi’s aides told him “our men” will take care of it.
At the height of the fighting, leading Brotherhood member Essam el-Erian went on the group’s TV station and called for Morsi supporters to go to the scene “in the tens of thousands to besiege those thugs because now is the moment to arrest them.” El-Erian is now a co-defendant in Morsi’s trial, though he is currently on the run and in hiding, so would be tried in absentia unless caught.
At the time, the organized nature of the attack on the camp fueled accusations by opponents that the Brotherhood runs “militias” to crack down on opponents, a claim the group denies.
Q: Any other trials coming up?
A: The Brotherhood’s top leader, Mohammed Badie, and several other members are already on trial on incitement charges over a separate incident of violence. Prosecutors are preparing cases against some 2,000 Brotherhood members currently in prison, including on allegations of including inciting violence in clashes outside the Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo and holding and torturing policemen during a pro-Morsi sit-in.
Morsi could also face more trials. He is being investigated on charges of insulting judges when, during a presidential speech, he accused specific judges of helping rig elections under Mubarak. Another case concerns allegations he colluded with Hamas to carry out attacks on prisons that broke free Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders during the 2011 anti-Mubarak uprising.
Q: Speaking of Mubarak, he’s still on trial?
A: Yes. In June 2012, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop the killings of the around 900 protesters who died in 2011 uprising But an appeals court overturned the conviction, saying the prosecution failed to provide concrete evidence. Mubarak’s retrial began last spring. – AP
Egypt’s toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak was transferred from prison to house arrest at a military hospital on Thursday, in a move overshadowed by a blistering crackdown against his Islamist successors.
The former strongman, forced to quit in early 2011, was flown by medical helicopter to a military hospital, where he will remain under house arrest as he stands trial on corruption and murder charges.
His ouster in 2011 was a pivotal moment in regional democratic upheavals that in Egypt led to an Islamist government, which lasted a year before a popularly backed military coup last month.
In other circumstances, the 85-year-old’s removal from prison might have caused shockwaves.
But with Egypt mired in a deadly conflict between the military-installed government and Islamists, Mubarak’s transfer took place amid little fanfare or protest.
He was ordered released after his lawyer argued Mubarak’s stay in prison had exceeded the maximum pre-verdict detention, and Mubarak made financial amends for one of his charges.
He still faces trial for corruption and his role in the deaths of protesters during the uprising that toppled him, with his next hearing on Sunday.
Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi, empowered with the authority to order arrests under the current state of emergency, ordered Mubarak to be placed under house arrest after release from jail.
Mubarak chose to be held at the military hospital, the official MENA news agency reported.
The decision to grant Mubarak pre-trial release added a volatile new element to the political turmoil that has gripped Egypt since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3 following massive protests against him.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in the past week in violence following the forcible break-up of two pro-Morsi camps in the capital.
Authorities have arrested dozens of members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, including its supreme guide Mohamed Badie — the first time the group’s chief has been arrested since 1981.
Morsi himself is being held at a secret location and faces charges related to his 2011 escape from prison and inciting the death and torture of protesters.
The juxtaposition between the fates of the two ousted presidents, Mubarak and Morsi, is notable, analyst Hisham Kassem said.
Mubarak “committed numerous crimes… against the country, but managed to hide the evidence, particularly as all the state’s institutions were working for him at the time he was overthrown”.
“The opposite is true for Morsi, who was thrown in prison while all the state’s apparatus were against him.”
Arrests of Brotherhood leaders continued, with authorities detaining Ahmed Aref, a spokesman for the group, in Cairo.
Despite the pressure, a Brotherhood-led coalition has defiantly called for mass rallies on Friday, in a test of its support following the crackdown.
Egypt has experienced unprecedented political bloodletting since August 14, when security forces stormed two pro-Morsi protest camps in the capital.
The crackdown and resulting violence across the country killed nearly 600 people in a single day, the bloodiest in Egypt’s recent history.
Islamists have been accused of torching and attacking dozens of Christian churches, schools, businesses and homes — mostly in the rural south –accusing Egypt’s sizable Coptic minority of backing Morsi’s ouster.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch condemned the government for failing to protect churches, but also the Brotherhood for failing to halt incitement against Christians.
Violence has also targeted police and soldiers, including two who were killed in a drive-by shooting near the Suez Canal town of Ismailia on Thursday.
The unrest has prompted international criticism, and EU foreign ministers agreed at an emergency meeting Wednesday to suspend the sale of arms and security equipment to Cairo in response to the mounting violence.
They issued a statement calling recent security operations “disproportionate”, while also condemning “acts of terrorism” in the Sinai and the church attacks.
But they expressed concern over the economic situation and said “assistance in the socio-economic sector and to civil society will continue”.
The United States has also criticised the violence, as well as Badie’s arrest, and announced the cancellation of joint military exercises.
But it has stopped short of halting its $1.3 billion annual defence aid package to Egypt, and denied reports it was withholding aid.
Washington on Thursday also sidestepped questions about Mubarak’s release, saying it was a matter for Cairo to decide, but called for Morsi to be freed.
“With respect to the Mubarak trial and decisions made, this is an internal Egyptian legal matter,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
“Our position on Mr. Morsi remains the same. We believe there should be a process for his release,” Psaki said.
Reporters had for days asked the State Department to comment on the seemingly paradoxical situation of the two leaders.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which backs the army-installed interim government, has said it would step in with other Arab nations to fill any funding gap if Washington halts aid.
Meanwhile, a Hamas official said Egypt was set to reopen the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip daily from Saturday after closing it in the wake of last week’s bloodshed. – AFP
Militants killed 25 policemen on Monday in the deadliest attack of its kind in years, as Egypt’s army-installed rulers escalated a campaign to crush ousted president Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
The assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at two buses carrying police in the Sinai Peninsula, security sources said, just hours after 37 Brotherhood prisoners died in police custody.
The bloodshed came after Egypt’s military chief vowed a “forceful” response to violence roiling the Arab world’s most populous nation.
Judicial sources said new accusations of inciting the deaths of protesters had been levelled against Morsi, who has been held in a secret location since the military deposed him on July 3.
Meanwhile, Former president Hosni Mubarak won conditional release in the third of four cases against him, but remained in detention on the fourth, judicial sources added.
The Sinai attack raised fears of a return to the wave of deadly Islamist violence that swept the country in the 1990’s.
Egypt is struggling to put a lid on a deep political crisis and violence that has killed almost 900 people in days of clashes between Islamist protesters and security forces across the country.
Western states have condemned the violence and are threatening to cut off billions of dollars in aid, though Saudi Arabia said Monday that Arab nations would step in to fill any gap.
Morsi loyalists vowed new demonstrations on Monday, although a day earlier they had cancelled some marches citing security
concerns.
The interior ministry said 25 policeman were killed and two injured in the Sinai attack, which it blamed on “armed terrorist groups”.
A border official said afterwards that the Rafah crossing with the Palestinian Gaza Strip, near where the attack occurred, would be closed.
Security sources said another policemen was killed in the northern city of El-Arish, bringing to at least 75 the number of security force members killed in the Sinai since the army toppled Morsi.
The security situation in the Sinai has deteriorated sharply in the past weeks, with near daily attacks by militants targeting police and military installations.
Elsewhere, bloodshed sparked by the August 14 security force crackdown on pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo showed little sign of abating.
Authorities said 37 Islamist detainees died after police fired tear gas in a bid to free an officer taken hostage by prisoners, as the inmates were being transferred to a north Cairo jail.
However, the Brotherhood, the once-banned movement from which Morsi hailed, held the police accountable, accusing them of “murder”. They said the incident affirmed “the intentional violence aimed at opponents of the coup, and the cold-blooded killing of which they are targets”. – Sapa
Egypt’s military-backed rulers are pressing on in their crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood with the arrest early Tuesday of the group’s spiritual leader who had been in hiding near the huge sit-in in support of the country’s ousted Islamist president, which security forces violently dispersed a week ago, leaving hundreds dead.
The arrest of Mohammed Badie – the supreme leader of the Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which ousted president Mohammed Morsi hails -followed a chaotic day of bloodshed that saw 25 policemen killed in a militant ambush in Sinai and a court ruling announcing the possibility that the jailed ex-president Hosni Mubarak could walk free later this week.
Mubarak’s release could fuel the unrest roiling the country after Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president and the autocratic Mubarak’s successor, was removed in a military coup on July 3.
Underscoring the growing anger over Morsi’s ouster, suspected Islamic militants on Monday ambushed two minibuses carrying off-duty policemen in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, forcing the men to lie on the sand and shooting 25 of them dead.
The brazen daylight attack raised fears that the strategic desert region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip could be plunged into a full-fledged insurgency.
Badie was captured early Tuesday in an apartment in the eastern Cairo district of Nasr City, according to security officials and state television, very close to where Morsi’s supporters held a six-week sit-in protest that was cleared by security forces last Wednesday.
The private ONTV network showed footage of a man the network said was Badie after his arrest. In the footage, a somber looking Badie in an off-white Arab robe, or galabiyah, sits motionless on a sofa as a man in civilian clothes and carrying an assault rifle stands nearby.
Badie and his powerful deputy Khairat el-Shater, who is in custody, go on trial later this month for their alleged role in the killing of eight protesters outside the Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters in June. His arrest is a serious blow to the group at a time when authorities are cracking down on its leaders and mid-ranking officials, detaining scores of them across the country.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Late Monday, the 25 slain police officers were given a funeral with full military honors. The men’s coffins, draped in red, white and black Egyptian flags, were jointly carried by army soldiers and policemen, and Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour declared a nationwide state of mourning to mark their deaths.
Mubarak, 85, has been in detention since April 2011, two months after he was ousted in a revolution against his rule.
He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to stop the killing of some 900 protesters in the 18-day uprising. His sentence was overturned on appeal and he is now being retried, along with his security chief and six top police commanders.
Two judicial officials said Mubarak could walk free this week or next after a criminal court on Monday ordered his release in a corruption case in which he and his two sons were accused of embezzling funds for the maintenance of presidential palaces. His sons were ordered kept in custody.
Monday’s ruling, along with the fact that Mubarak had previously been ordered released in the killings of the protesters opened the possibility of freedom for the former president, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
There will no longer be any grounds to hold him if a court accepts a petition by his lawyer requesting his release in a third case later this week or next.
But freeing Mubarak, widely hated for widespread abuses and repression during his 29 years in power, during one of the worst bouts of turmoil since his ouster would be a huge risk for the military-backed government.
It could lend credibility to allegations that the mass protests that preceded the July 3 coup that toppled Morsi were the work of Mubarak-era figures searching for a way to reinstate the former regime.
Last week, the military raided two protest camps of Morsi’s supporters in Cairo, killing hundreds of people and triggering a wave of violence that has left at least 1,000 people dead.
Human Rights Watch, in a report Monday, accused Egyptian security forces of using excessive force when they moved to clear the larger of the two camps. The New York-based group said the assault amounted to the “most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history.”
It called on authorities to reverse a recent decision authorizing the use of deadly force by security forces when they come under attack or when key government facilities are assaulted.
The Sinai Peninsula has long been wracked by violence by al-Qaida-linked fighters, some who consider Morsi’s Brotherhood to be too moderate, and tribesmen who have used the area for smuggling and other criminal activity. Attacks, especially those targeting security forces, have been on the rise since Morsi’s ouster.
Monday’s attack targeting the police officers took place near the border town of Rafah in northern Sinai. A few hours later, militants shot to death a senior police officer as he stood guard outside a bank in el-Arish, another city in the largely lawless area, security officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack. The United States condemned the slaying of the police officers and repeated its commitment to help Egypt combat terrorism in Sinai. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also denounced the attack.
The Sinai attack came a day after security forces killed 36 detainees during a riot on a prison-bound truck convoy north of Cairo. The killings came as police fired tear gas to free a guard who was trapped in the melee, security officials said.
The government ordered an inquiry into the deaths, which it blamed on armed men allegedly trying to help the 600 Muslim Brotherhood detainees escape. It gave no details.
The Brotherhood blamed military chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and the interior minister for Sunday’s killings. The group also called for an international inquiry into the deaths.
The United States said it was troubled by the “suspicious deaths” of the prisoners.
“We call on all Egypt’s leaders and the international community to condemn such attacks without equivocation,” said Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman.
Amnesty International demanded a “full, impartial and effective” probe into the events.
Morsi has been held in an undisclosed location since his ouster. On Monday, prosecutors ordered his detention for 15 days in connection with allegations that he conspired to kill and torture protesters during mass demonstrations by the opposition outside his presidential palace in December 2012. – AP
Egyptian authorities have ordered hospital personnel to record some of the deaths of those with gunshot wounds as suicides.
Thirty-eight prisoners died from teargas suffocation during a riot in a prison near the capital Cairo on Sunday. At least 830 people have died in clashes with the army since Wednesday.
Around 38 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood died on Sunday in a riot at an Egyptian prison, security sources said.
The Interior Ministry said a group of detainees had tried to escape from a prison on the outskirts of Cairo, adding that an undisclosed number had been suffocated by teargas when police moved in to free an officer who had been taken hostage.
Critics allege a possible mass execution took place where more than 830. Egyptian authorities say 70 members of the security forces have been killed.
On Sunday, Christian institutions said they were coming under attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt as Muslim Brotherhood supporters carry out a policy of intimidation against Egypt’s Christian minority in retaliation for their support for the interim government.
Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) is to re-evaluate its official position in regard to Egypt following military crackdown on Brotherhood supporters.
Another Christian institution was torched by Islamist extremists in Beni Suef in upper Egypt on Sunday bringing the number of churches and Christian institutions attacked or destroyed in Egypt since the overthrow of Muhammad Morsi to over 40.
After the Franciscan school was set on fire, three of the school’s nuns were paraded through the streets while another two women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they tried to escape the mob.
In the city of Minya, Islamists marked Christian businesses with red crosses and Muslim businesses with black crosses in preparation for more attacks. – SABC
Egypt’s Christians are living in fear after a string of attacks against churches, businesses and homes they say were carried out by angry supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
As police dispersed Morsi supporters from two Cairo squares on Wednesday, attackers torched churches across the country in an apparent response.
“People are terrified; no one dares leave home,” Marco, a 27-year-old engineer, told AFP by phone from the central city of Sohag.
The city has become a ghost town, he said, describing an atmosphere of terror where attackers “know where the Copts live” and torched several churches before turning to homes.
The Maspero Youth Union, a Coptic Christian youth movement, denounced what it called a “retaliation war” against the religious minority, which makes up around 10 percent of Egypt’s population.
The group accused Morsi supporters of targeting them in response to Coptic Pope Tawadros II’s support for the July 3 coup that ousted the Islamist leader.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a local NGO, says at least 25 churches were torched on Wednesday and Thursday, and that attackers also targeted Christian schools, shops and homes across all 27 provinces.
Iraq’s Chaldean Christian archbishop Louis Sako told AFP that one of his community’s churches was among those targeted on Wednesday.
“This is a real disaster,” he said, saying the region is a “dangerous volcano.”
For Marco, the attacks against the churches were not a surprise –Christian religious buildings have been targeted before.
It was the torching of Coptic Christian homes and the looting of their businesses that shocked him.
The attackers were “people chanting pro-Morsi slogans and wearing headbands with the phrase ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ written on them,” he said.
The Maspero Youth Union, which documented abuses against Christians during Morsi’s one year in office, also laid blame for the attacks on supporters of the ousted leader.
“Maspero Youth Union condemns the terrorism Copts are facing now in Egypt after supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi waged a retaliation war against Copts and their churches, homes and businesses,” the group said.
“Copts were attacked in nine governorates, causing panic, losses and destruction for no reason and no crimes they committed except being Christians.”
Morsi’s supporters have often accused Christians of supporting president Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in Egypt’s 2011 uprising. Ironically, Christians were also targeted when Mubarak was in power.
On Thursday, the country’s interim army-installed government described attacks on Egypt’s Christians as a “red line” and pledged that authorities would “respond forcefully” to any new attack.
Shortly afterwards, the defence minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who led the coup, pledged that the army would pay for the rebuilding of the churches attacked on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, interim prime minister Hazem Beblawi also announced he had met with Coptic Pope Tawadros II to express solidarity in the wake of the attacks.
And state news agency MENA reported that 80 Morsi loyalists had been arrested and turned over to military courts for their alleged involvement in torching churches in Suez province on Wednesday.
The Muslim Brotherhood had little to say on the issue, with spokesman Gehad el-Haddad suggesting the authorities were behind the violence.
“Military coup regime is resorting to instigating sectarian violence exactly as they did when Mubarak was about to fall,” he tweeted.
The government’s promises have so far failed to convince Christians and activists that authorities would prevent future attacks.
“The state must intervene to protect the population. Concrete action is needed after all the big speeches,” said Ishak Ibrahim, an EIPR researcher on religious issues.
He described a “discourse of hatred” against Christians throughout the country, more from the Salafists, the most conservative of Islamists, rather than members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
And he pointed out that most of the attacks had taken place outside the major cities, in areas where security presence is often minimal.
“Families who are too scared to go out to get supplies are waiting for something concrete,” added Karem, another resident of Sohag.
“Right now as we speak, attacks against Christians are continuing,” he said.
Egypt was under a tense state of emergency Thursday after security forces stormed the Cairo protest camps supporting ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, in a bloody assault that sparked violence across the country which officials said claimed 278 lives.
The army-backed interim government imposed a month-long nationwide state of emergency, and curfews in Cairo and 13 other provinces after the violence on Wednesday.
Gory photographs and video images of the Cairo bloodbath dominated social media networks, as world powers called for restraint and condemned the show of force by security forces.
At least four churches were attacked, with Christian activists accusing Morsi loyalists of waging “a war of retaliation against Copts in Egypt”.
Hours after tear gas canisters first rained down on tents of protesters in the sprawling Rabaa al-Adawiya camp in eastern Cairo, an AFP correspondent counted at least 124 bodies in makeshift morgues there.
In a field hospital, its floors slippery with blood, doctors struggled to cope with the casualties, leaving the hopeless cases, even if still alive.
The health ministry said 235 civilians were killed in the Cairo crackdown and in subsequent clashes across Egypt. The interior ministry added that 43 security personnel had lost their lives.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood spoke of 2,200 dead overall and more than 10,000 wounded.
Among those killed in Cairo was 17-year-old Asmaa al-Beltagui, daughter of wanted Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed al-Beltagui, a spokesman for Morsi’s movement said.
Britain’s Sky News said a veteran cameraman, Briton Mick Deane, was shot and killed while covering the assaults.
The violence prompted vice president and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei to resign, saying his conscience was troubled over the loss of life, “particularly as I believe it could have been avoided”.
“It has become too difficult to continue bearing responsibility for decisions I do not agree with and whose consequences I fear,” he said.
The state of emergency went into effect at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Wednesday, with daily overnight curfews from 7:00 pm to 6:00 am.
The dramatic descent on the squares shortly after dawn came as a surprise to many. Security officials had originally spoken of gradually dispersing the sit-ins over several days.
Shortly after dawn on Wednesday, witnesses and an AFP correspondent said security forces fired tear gas before surging into Rabaa al-Adawiya, sparking pandemonium among the thousands of protesters who had set up the camp soon after Morsi was ousted in a military coup on July 3.
Men in gas masks rushed to grab each canister and dunk them in containers of water, as the main stage near the mosque of the camp blared Islamic anthems and protesters chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
Many Morsi supporters were given safe passage out of the camp, some flashing victory signs as they left through a security corridor.
A security official told AFP that hundreds of people were taking advantage of the safe passage offer, but that some diehards had stayed behind to fight on.
By Wednesday evening, a security official said Rabaa al-Adawiya was “totally under control”, adding: “There are no more clashes”.
In the smaller of the protest camps, at Al-Nahda square in central Cairo, police said they had control of the area after two hours.
Television footage showed flattened tents, as women and children flanked by police and army troops were led out of the square.
Dozens rounded up in the dispersal were shown sitting on the ground, handcuffed and surrounded by security forces.
Authorities later said calm had been restored across the country.
Use of force widely condemned
Europe’s leading powers, along with Iran, Qatar and Turkey, strongly denounced the use of force by the interim government.
The White House said Washington, which provides Egypt with $1.3 billion in annual military aid, “strongly condemns” the violence against the protesters and opposes the imposition of a state of emergency.
Interim prime minister Hazem al-Beblawi praised the police for their “self-restraint” and said the government remained committed to an army-drafted roadmap that calls for elections in 2014.
The Muslim Brotherhood urged Egyptians to take to the streets in their thousands to denounce the “massacre”.
“This is not an attempt to disperse, but a bloody attempt to crush all voices of opposition to the military coup,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad al-Haddad said on Twitter.
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said no more protests would be tolerated.
The anger against the Islamist movement was evident as residents of several neighbourhoods clashed with Morsi loyalists.
Clashes also erupted between security forces and Morsi supporters in the northern provinces of Alexandria and Beheira, the canal provinces of Suez and Ismailiya, and the central provinces of Assiut and Menya.
In Alexandria, hundreds of angry Morsi supporters marched through the streets armed with wooden clubs chanting “Morsi is my president”.
An AFP reporter said they set fire to tyres and tore down pictures of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the coup against Morsi.
It was a dramatic turn of events for the Muslim Brotherhood, who just over a year ago celebrated Morsi’s victory as Egypt’s first elected president.
His turbulent year in power, marred by political turmoil, deadly clashes and a crippling economic crisis, turned many against the Islamist movement, with millions taking to the streets on June 30 to call for his removal. – AFP
Security forces backed by bulldozers moved in on Wednesday on two huge protest camps set up in Cairo by supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi, launching a long-threatened crackdown that left dozens dead and injured.
The operation began shortly after dawn when security forces surrounded the sprawling Rabaa al-Adawiya camp in east Cairo and a similar one at Al-Nahda square, in the centre of the capital.
Witnesses and an AFP correspondent said police rained canisters of tear gas down onto tents before entering Rabaa al-Adawiya, sparking pandemonium among the thousands of protesters who set up the camp soon after Morsi was ousted by the army on 3 July.
Men in gas masks rushed to grab each canister and dunk them in containers of water, as the main stage near the mosque of the camp blared Islamic anthems and protesters chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
Clashes quickly erupted between protesters and security forces on one side of the camp, as automatic fire could be heard. It was not immediately clear who was doing the shooting.
Television footage showed injured people being carried to a makeshift medical centre as well as police dragging away protesters, who have defied numerous ultimatums to end their demonstrations.
Protest leaders wearing gas masks stood defiantly on a stage while crowds of people wearing face masks stood amid the swirling tear gas as bulldozers began dismantling the camp.
Egypt’s interior ministry mid-morning said security forces have “total control” over Al-Nahda Square, the smaller of the two camps.
“Police forces have managed to remove most of the tents in the square,” the ministry said.
A security official told AFP that dozens of Morsi supporters had been arrested with the help of residents of the area.
Television footage showed protesters who had been rounded up sitting in the ground handcuffed and surrounded by security forces.
Families, with their children, carrying plastic bags were seen being escorted out of the square by police.
Railway authorities announced that all trains had been grounded to prevent protesters from moving outside of Cairo and reassembling.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood urged Egyptians to take to the streets in their thousands to denounce the “massacre”.
“This is not an attempt to disperse, but a bloody attempt to crush all voices of opposition to the military coup,” Brotherhood spokesperson Gehad al-Haddad said on Twitter.
The Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp, where several Brotherhood leaders are staying, “is calling on Egyptians to take to the streets to stop the massacre,” Haddad said.
In a separate tweet, Haddad said at least 250 people were killed and over 5000 injured in the crackdown. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the tolls.
An AFP correspondent counted 17 bodies at a makeshift morgue at Rabaa al-Adawiya, adding that many appeared to have died from gunshot wounds.
Egypt’s interior ministry said two members of the security forces were killed in the operation.
The crackdown came just hours after the United States urged the military-backed interim government to allow Morsi supporters to protest freely.
State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said Washington regarded freedom to protest as a “key part” of the democratic process but would be concerned by reports of violence.
The United States, which provides $1.5-billion in mostly military aid to Egypt every year, maintains close ties to the Egyptian military but says it favours a rapid return to elected civilian rule.
Morsi, Egypt’s first elected president, was overthrown by the military on 3 July with popular backing.
His supporters had said nothing short of his reinstatement would persuade them to disperse.
Clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators and security forces have killed more than 250 people since the end of June.
On Monday, the judiciary extended Morsi’s detention for a further 15 days pending an investigation into his collaboration with Palestinian group Hamas.
The Muslim Brotherhood, banned in 1954 and repressed by successive governments, won both parliamentary and presidential elections in 2011 after the ouster of veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.
Prosecutors have set an 25 August date for the trial of the Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie and his two deputies. – AFP
Hundreds of thousands of protestors flood Cairo’s Tahrir Square while a man waves an Egyptian flag from a rooftop last night
Sixteen Islamist activists were shot dead early on Monday during a protest outside a key Cairo army headquarters calling for ousted president Mohamed Morsi to be reinstated, his Muslim Brotherhood said.
“Sixteen people were killed and 100 others injured, many of them in serious condition,” the group’s spokesman Ahmed Aref told AFP.
Police barricades prevented journalists from accessing the area around the elite Republican Guards base.
Demonstrators told AFP that troops and police had fired tear gas canisters and bullets into the air to disperse the protesters.
“They wanted to disperse the protesters,” who were determined to stage an indefinite sit-in, the protester said.
Another protester, Mahmud al-Shilli confirmed that security forces fired into the air, adding that a group of men in civilian clothing had attacked the protesters.
“The Republican Guard fired tear gas but the thugs came from the side. We were the target,” Shilli told AFP.
Earlier, demonstrators told AFP by telephone that troops and police had fired tear gas canisters and live rounds in a bid to disperse them.
“I saw with my own eyes the people who they shot at,” one protester said, adding that several people had been injured.
On Friday at the same spot, four Islamists were shot dead by soldiers.
Supporters of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood have mobilised in large numbers in different parts of Cairo in recent days, vowing to defend Morsi, who was ousted by the military on Wednesday after mass protests calling for him to be removed from power.
Morsi was Egypt’s first freely elected president but lasted just a year in power. – AFP
The head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Friday vowed that the group’s followers would hold open-ended protests to press for the reinstatement of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, as violence mounted in the country.
“All the measures taken (by the army) are invalid,” Mohammed Badie said at a massive Cairo rally. “The millions supporting Morsi will stay in the squares until the president of Egypt is reinstated.”
Badie, who is the spiritual leader of the Brotherhood to which Morsi belongs, denied media reports he had been arrested.
His influential deputy, Khayrat al-Shater, was arrested Friday in Cairo on charges of inciting violence against opponents, the official Middle East News Agency reported.
The army ousted Morsi on Wednesday following unprecedented protests by millions of Egyptians who demanded his resignation and early presidential elections. Several leading Islamists have since been detained.
The former president’s backers staged huge protests across Egypt, demanding his reinstatement.
“The situation is very clear. The democratic process in Egypt has been assassinated by a coup d’etat against the first democratically elected president,” Omar Ibrahim, a school teacher attending the pro-Morsi rally in the Cairo area of Nasr City, told dpa.
“But I can assure you that the Egyptian people will defend their revolution.”
Violence on Friday in the wake of Morsi’s overthrow left 17 people dead and 315 injured in Cairo and other areas, state television reported, citing the Health Ministry. There were no details on how and where the casualties occurred.
The broadcaster reported clashes between Morsi’s opponents and backers in Alexandria, Egypt’s second most populous city, the Nile Delta provinces of Damietta and Beheira, and the coastal city of Suez.
One person was reported killed and 66 injured in fighting between the two sides near the Nile-side TV building in Cairo near Tahrir Square, where Morsi’s opponents continued to celebrate his removal.
The army positioned tanks and armoured vehicles outside the building apparently to prevent potential attacks.
There were clashes in al-Arish, a city in the Sinai Peninsula near Israel. A police car was torched in the violence.
State television said the army had foiled an attempt by Morsi’s supporters to storm the city hall of the Suez Canal city of Ismailia. No casualties were reported.
Egypt’s top Muslim cleric, Ahmed al-Tayyeb, appealed for calm.
“I call on all Egyptians to avoid bloodshed. I entreat to God to put an end to this ugly sedition,” al-Tayyeb, head of the prestigious Sunni al-Azhar institution, said in a televised statement.
Earlier Friday, gunmen attacked army and police checkpoints in Sinai, killing one soldier and injuring three others, a security official said.
The attacks prompted Egyptian authorities to indefinitely close the Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Troops deployed in Suez and South Sinai provinces were put on maximum alert following the assaults.
Interim President Adli Mansour, sworn in Thursday, has dissolved the Islamist-dominated Shura Council, which served as a temporary legislature.
Mansour appointed Refaat Shehata, outgoing intelligence service chief, as presidential advisor on security and named Mohamed Farid as new intelligence chief.
The African Union Peace and Security Council suspended Egypt on Friday from the 54-nation bloc, citing an unconstitutional power grab in the North African nation.
Cairo said it “deeply regretted” the bloc’s decision.
“We deeply regret this decision, which has been taken on the basis of unrealistic information,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Atti said.
Morsi became Egypt’s first democratically elected president last year after winning the polls with a narrow margin.
The opposition accused him of being keen on tightening the Muslim Brotherhood’s hold on power and becoming a dictator. – dpa
Egyptians protesting on 30 June against Mohammed Morsi
The general’s voice boomed from loudspeakers set up in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square and the boisterous crowds erupted into cheers, dancing and waving a sea of red, black and white Egyptian flags.
Fireworks burst in the sky and green lasers waved overhead as millions of Egyptians celebrated the military’s announcement that it was ousting Islamist Mohammed Morsi after four days of mass protests demanding his removal.
“The people finally overthrew the regime,” hundreds of thousands chanted, rocking the plaza in scenes reminiscent of the protests that toppled autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.
But highlighting the deep divisions that remain, supporters of the Islamist leader cried “Down with military rule” after army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi finished his statement. Scores of Morsi backers also went on a rampage in southern Egypt, breaking shop facades in the southern city of Assiut, smashing a police car in Aswan, and attempting to break into a police station in the coastal city of Marsa Matrouh, leaving six people killed.
But in most of the Egyptian capital, el-Sissi was seen as a savior and the military was hailed by the public for answering their calls to remove Morsi, just over a year after his June 30 inauguration. Some people fired guns into the air to celebrate, and subway riders broke into cheers of “the people and the army are one hand.”
It also came after hours of waiting for the military to make its move as Morsi defiantly refused to step down despite the expiration of a Wednesday afternoon deadline to reach agreement with his opponents. Morsi was Egypt’s first democratically elected leader but he drew the ire of many Egyptians who accused him and his Muslim Brotherhood of polarizing the country by trying to impose Islamist rule and failing to introduce reforms.
“It was a nightmare and it ended,” said Mona el-Desouki, 38, waving an Egyptian flag as she stood in front of the famed Egyptian museum on the edge of Tahrir. “Life came back to us. Egypt is ours again. Our life will become as it was, with no difference between Muslims and Christians.”
Chants of “Misr” or “Egypt” also rang through the square. Signaling the high hopes that the country could return to a sense of normalcy, security officials removed some of the concrete barricades that have blocked several streets in the area because of the frequent clashes between protesters and police.
The military has long been seen as protectors of the people, although the generals were accused of holding onto power for too long after Mubarak’s ouster.
Protesters carried el-Sissi’s picture, and others climbed onto armored vehicles to take photographs with the soldiers. Residents of a house near one military post offered the soldiers tea and food, counting on them for protection from the wrath of Morsi’s supporters.
“When I saw these military trucks in front of our house, I felt safe because I know the Brotherhood and their supporters will not just leave that easily,” said one of the residents, 75-year-old Mervat Talaat.
People drove around Cairo, honking car horns as children waved Egyptian flags from the windows. Outside the presidential palace across town from Tahrir, people cried and hugged as cheers drowned out the rest of el-Sissi’s speech.
In the ancient city of Luxor, boats docked in the Nile River also sounded their horns as crowds marched by in celebration. People shot off fireworks in the city, which has suffered from a drastic drop in tourism due to the turmoil that has wracked Egypt since Mubarak’s ouster. Others handed out gifts and cartons of cigarettes to bystanders.
Ahmed Gad, 23, said it was the happiest moment of his life.
“In 2011 we won a political battle. This time we won a political and a religious battle because the Brotherhood kept accusing us of being heretics and used religion and acted as if they had the real Islam,” he said.
Mohammed Nageh, 25, said he had voted for Morsi but felt the Islamist leader had acted in the interest of himself and the Muslim Brotherhood and failing the rest of Egypt.
“I voted for him because I didn’t want the old regime back in,” he said as he danced and removed his shirt. “But this revolution was made for poor and they are the people who suffered the most. We are here to put the revolution back on track, so it serves the poor, not just the Brotherhood.” – AP
President Mohamed Morsi rebuffed an army ultimatum to force a resolution to Egypt’s political crisis, saying on Tuesday that he had not been consulted and would pursue his own plans for national reconciliation.
The Islamist leader described as potentially confusing Monday’s 48-hour deadline set by the head of the armed forces for him to agree on a common platform with liberal rivals who have drawn millions into the streets demanding Morsi’s resignation.
Members of his Muslim Brotherhood have used the word “coup” to describe the military manoeuvre, which carries the threat of the generals imposing their own road map for the nation.
But in a statement issued at nearly 2am, nine hours after General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delighted Morsi’s opponents by effectively ordering the president to heed the demands of demonstrators, the president’s office used considerably less direct language to indicate he would try to take little notice.
“The president of the republic was not consulted about the statement issued by the armed forces,” it said. “The presidency sees that some of the statements in it carry meanings that could cause confusion in the complex national environment.”
Official video was released showing Morsi meeting the uniformed Sisi. Their body language seemed awkward, although it was unclear when it was shot.
The statement from Morsi’s office continued: “The presidency confirms that it is going forward on its previously plotted path to promote comprehensive national reconciliation regardless of any statements that deepen divisions between citizens.”
Describing civilian rule as a great gain from the revolution of 2011, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, in office for just a year, said he would not let the clock be turned back.
A sense of disintegration in the administration since the protests on Sunday has been heightened by the resignations tendered by several ministers who are not members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. On Tuesday, the state news agency said the foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, had also asked to step down.
Attacks on Brotherhood offices have added to feelings among Islamists that they are under siege.
Some Brotherhood leaders, who swept a series of votes last year, said they would look to put their own supporters on the streets. After the destruction of the Brotherhood’s headquarters in a battle overnight on Monday in which eight people were killed, the possibility of wider violence seems real.
World powers are looking on anxiously, including the United States, which has long funded the Egyptian army as a key component in the security of Washington’s ally Israel.
President Barack Obama has urged Morsi and his rivals to compromise. But Washington has also defended the legitimacy of Morsi’s election. It is unclear how far the Egyptian military has informed, or co-ordinated with, its US sponsors.
The sight of military helicopters streaming national flags over Cairo’s Tahrir Square at sunset, after Sisi had laid down the law, sent huge crowds into a frenzy of cheers.
But on the other side of Egypt’s polarised politics, a Brotherhood spokesman said it might considering forming “self-defence” committees after a series of attacks on its premises.
Among Morsi’s allies are groups with more militant pasts, including al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, a sometime associate of al-Qaeda, whose men fought Mubarak’s security forces for years and who have warned they would not tolerate renewed military rule.
An alliance of Islamist groups, including the Brotherhood, issued a cautious joint statement that avoided criticising the army but spoke of it being manipulated by rival parties.
Morsi has said he favours moving to elections for a new parliament that would give the opposition more say – if, as he points out, it has popular support. But the opposition, convinced the Brotherhood is out to entrench its rule forever, does not trust Morsi and wants to wipe clean a messy slate of institutional reforms since 2011 before holding a vote.
How far Sisi is prepare to push Morsi is not clear. Despite a hard line being taken by opposition leaders, some compromise in which Morsi was given time to lead the country, or perhaps to call a referendum on finishing his term, might be possible.
A military source said Sisi was keen not to repeat the experience of the year and a half between Mubarak’s fall and Morsi’s election, when a committee of generals formed a government that proved unpopular as the economy struggled.
The army’s preference would appear to be for a more hands-off approach, supervising government but not running it.
For many Egyptians, fixing the economy is key. Unrest since Mubarak fell has hobbled tourism and investment and the state finances are in poor shape, drained by extensive subsidy regimes and struggling to provide regular supplies of fuel. – Reuters
Obama fully supported protests to overthrow the relatively friendly Egyptian Government of Mubarak. U.S. support paved way for an Islamist takeover by the oppressive and violent Muslim Brotherhood.
Now those suffering the most under this brutal Islamist rule want to protest, and the Obama Administration is trying to prevent it.
As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi’s rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the Tahrir protests that earlier ousted Mubarak. Among other influential Egyptians, Morsi recently called on Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to urge his flock, Egypt’s millions of Christians, not to join the June 30 protests.While that may be expected, more troubling is that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt is also trying to prevent Egyptians from protesting—including the Copts. The June 18th edition of Sadi al-Balad reports that lawyer Ramses Naggar, the Coptic Church’s legal counsel, said that during [Anne W.] Patterson’s June 17 meeting with Pope Tawadros, she “asked him to urge the Copts not to participate” in the demonstrations against Morsi and the Brotherhood. […]
So why is the Obama administration now asking Christians not to oppose their rulers–in this case, Islamists–who have daily proven themselves corrupt and worse, to the point that millions of Egyptians, most of them Muslims, are trying to oust them?
What’s worse is that the human rights abuses Egypt’s Coptic Christians have been suffering under Muslim Brotherhood rule are significantly worse than the human rights abuses that the average Egyptian suffered under Mubarak–making the Copts’ right to protest even more legitimate, and, if anything, more worthy of U.S support.
Among other things, under Morsi’s rule, the persecution of Copts has practically been legalized, as unprecedented numbers of Christians–men, women, and children–have been arrested, often receiving more than double the maximum prison sentence, under the accusation that they “blasphemed” Islam and/or its prophet. It was also under Morsi’s reign that another unprecedented scandal occurred: the St. Mark Cathedral–holiest site of Coptic Christianity and headquarters to the Pope Tawadros himself–was besieged in broad daylight by Islamic rioters. When security came, they too joined in the attack on the cathedral. And the targeting of Christian children–for abduction, ransom, rape, and/or forced conversion—has also reached unprecedented levels under Morsi.
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