Intensifying clashes in Egypt leave at least 51 killed
By Nehal El-Sherif, dpa
08.07.2013 19:35
Cairo (dpa) - At least 51 people were killed Monday in Cairo in clashes between Islamist protesters and security forces, as tensions rose in Egypt after the military overthrew president Mohammed Morsi.
The Egyptian Army said fighting broke out after an armed group attempted to storm a Republican Guard facility, where Morsi's supporters believe he is being held.
"The scene stopped being peaceful," army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali said. "The armed forces and police did not respond to the protesters but remained to protect the public institutions. We dealt with the angry protesters with restraint."
He said that gunmen tried to penetrate the barbed wire surrounding the compound while snipers working in tandem fired from nearby rooftops, and showed videos of civilians carrying guns and throwing petrol bombs and stones at soldiers guarding the building.
Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group said the army and police opened fire on supporters of the toppled president, killing more than 50 people.
Interim president Adli Mansour has ordered an independent investigation into the violence.
The violence amplifies the conflict between the army and supporters of the Brotherhood, who vowed to continue demonstrating until Morsi is restored to power.
In a statement, the Brotherhood attacked army chief and Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, who led Morsi's overthrow, saying he was pushing Egypt toward civil war.
"They attacked the people who were praying. They had their heads bowed to the ground, their backs to their trusted army," Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad said.
El-Haddad vowed the protests would continue.
"They are trying to terrorize us off the squares and disperse us - we are not going to do that," he told dpa. "They are trying to drag us into a cycle of violence, and we are not going to do that."
A pro-Morsi doctor said the army used live ammunition against the protesters.
"What happened today shows us that we are not dealing with a normal regime. (This is) a regime allowing bloodshed of its own people, a regime responding to bare breasts of peaceful protesters by shooting at them," the doctor said.
The Health Ministry said 435 people were injured. The army arrested 200 people for questioning.
Clashes between rival protesters have killed 72 people since June 28, al-Ahram newspaper reported, citing the Health Ministry.
"Violence begets violence and should be strongly condemned," Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei said on his Twitter account. "Independent investigation (is) a must. Peaceful transition is the only way."
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar, warned against civil war in Egypt and said he would go into seclusion as long as violence continued.
The top Muslim cleric called for a transparent investigation, urged authorities to form a national reconciliation committee to stop the bloodshed and said that the transitional period should not be more than six months.
The ultraconservative Salafist party al-Nour said it was withdrawing from talks with Egypt's new rulers on forming a government after the "massacre" at the military facility.
"We decided to withdraw immediately from all negotiations in response to the Republican Guard massacre," al-Nour spokesman Nader Bakkar wrote on social networking sites. "We wanted to stop bloodshed, and now it is spilled in rivers."
Al-Nour, which came second in Egypt's 2011 parliamentary elections, had backed the army's toppling of Morsi.
The leader of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party, Ennahda, Rachid Ghannouchi condemned the killings as a "massacre."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the violence, saying there was an "urgent need for calm and restraint."
"It is crucial that there is a swift return to democratic processes in Egypt," he said. "All sides of the political spectrum should work together for the sake of the country's political and economic future."
Developments in Egypt would be discussed among the European Union members this week and featured on the agenda on the July 22 foreign ministers' meeting, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in Brussels.
"She calls on all sides, but particularly on the Interim Presidency and those in a position of authority and influence, to reach out to all political forces and to move rapidly toward reconciliation," Ashton said in a statement.
In Washington, the White House indicated that 1.5 billion dollars in annual military and economic aid to Egypt would continue despite calls from some in Congress to halt support. Under US law, must freeze financial support to countries where democratically elected governments are ousted.
"(We) think it would not be in the best interests of the United States to immediately change our assistance programs to Egypt," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
He indicated that the interim government should get a chance to get Egypt back on the road to democracy and free elections.
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