The violence in Egypt seems to be metamorphosing rapidly into a state of open civil war. This morning the Egyptian army and police opened fire on a group of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, and at least 51 people were killed. The authorities maintain that they were provoked into their response by armed protesters who fired at the troops.
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this news report from Al Jazeera:
Below are excerpts from the accompanying article:
Massacre in Cairo Deepens Egypt Crisis
At least 51 dead after gunmen open fire at Muslim Brotherhood protest against military coup in Egyptian capital.
A deadly shooting at the site of a sit-in by Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo, demanding the reinstatement of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, has left dozens of people dead.
The Egyptian health ministry said at least 51 people had been killed and more than 300 injured in the incident early on Monday morning.
Egypt’s interim administration has expressed “deep regret” for those killed in violence in Cairo on Monday, it said in a statement carried on the state news agency.
The transitional administration also said it had formed a judicial committee to investigate the events. The statement called on protesters not to approach any military or “other vital installations”.
Mohamed Mohamed Ibrahim El-Beltagy, a Brotherhood MP, described the incident during dawn prayers after police had stormed the site, as a “massacre”.
About 500 people were also reportedly injured.
A doctor told Al Jazeera that “the majority of injured had gunshot wounds to the head”.
The Brotherhood said the dead and the injured have been taken to a makeshift hospital in the Nasr City neighbourhood.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Gehad Haddad, a spokesman for Muslim Brotherhood, said that at around 3.30 in the morning, army and police forces started firing at sit-in protesters in front of the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo.
“We have people hit in the head, we have bullets that exploded as they entered the body, cluttering organs and body parts” said Haddad.
“Every police force in the world understands how to disperse a sit-in. This is just a criminal activity targeting protesters.”
However, the military, which has set up checkpoints around Nasr City, said a “terrorist group” was responsible, adding that two officer had also been killed.
Who would have expected this turn of events? Certainly not the counter Jihad movement which expected the Brotherhood to be in power in Egypt for a long time.
The so called “liberal Muslims” or civil society supporters did predict this, as they claimed at the time when Morsi was elected into office he would quickly fail which would result in Egyptians getting rid of him. I personally still find it difficult to fathom how majority Muslim society first elect MB to bring in Sharia and than boot them out, and still claim to be Muslims.
@Russkiy,
There was a lot of election fraud and a lot of intimidating the opposition – same as in the US.
I am sure this will turn into a traditional islamic bloodbath with the muslims massacreing the coptic Christians.
Polls show that the majority of Egyptians say that they want to be governed by Sharia. Now I think that in the big cities the numbers may be more equal. So one question is can the minority of people who favor a more secular government and who live in the big cities prevail over the majority of the population?
They can bring large numbers of people out into the streets but can they really prevail?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1YCFruZ__cI