By By KAREEM FAHIM and MAYY EL SHEIKH
July 27, 2013
CAIRO - The Egyptian authorities unleashed a ferocious attack on Islamist protesters early Saturday, killing at least 72 people in the second mass killing of demonstrators in three weeks and the deadliest attack by the security services since Egypt's uprising in early 2011.
The attack provided further evidence that Egypt's security establishment was reasserting its dominance after President Mohammed Morsi's ouster three weeks ago, and widening its crackdown on his Islamist allies in the Muslim Brotherhood. The tactics - many were killed with gunshot wounds to the head or the chest - suggested that Egypt's security services felt no need to show any restraint.
?They had orders to shoot to kill,? said Gehad el-Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman. The message, he said, was, ?This is the new regime.?
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry called this ?a pivotal moment for Egypt? and urged its leaders ?to help their country take a step back from the brink.?
The killings occurred a day after hundreds of thousands of Egyptians marched in support of the military, responding to a call by its commander for a ?mandate? to fight terrorism. The appeal by Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who has emerged as Egypt's de facto leader since the military removed Morsi from power, was widely seen as a green light to the security forces to increase their repression of the Islamists.
In the attack Saturday, civilians joined riot police officers in firing live ammunition at the protesters as they marched toward a bridge over the Nile. By early morning, the number of wounded people had overwhelmed doctors at a nearby field hospital.
One doctor sat by himself, crying as he whispered verses from the Quran. Nearby, medics tried to revive a man on a gurney. When they failed he was quickly lifted away to make room for the many others.
With hundreds of people gravely wounded, the toll seemed certain to rise, and by Saturday evening had already surpassed the more than 60 deaths on July 8, when soldiers and police officers fired on pro-Morsi demonstrators.
As the deaths have mounted, more than 200 since the government was overthrown, hopes have faded for a political solution to the standoff between the military and the Brotherhood, whose leaders, including Morsi, are imprisoned or preparing themselves for jail.
In a televised news conference hours after the clash, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim absolved his men of any responsibility and made no mention of the high death toll. His officers, he said, ?have never and will never shoot a bullet on any Egyptian.?
He blamed Morsi's supporters for the violence, saying they planned to disrupt traffic on the bridge. ?We had to stop them,? Ibrahim said. The protesters threw rocks and fired weapons, he said, and a large number of officers were wounded, including two who were shot in the head.
Ibrahim also suggested that further repression was imminent as the authorities prepared to break up sit-ins that thousands of Morsi's supporters have held for weeks.
?God willing, it will be dispersed in a way that doesn't cause many losses,? he said. ?But God willing, it must end.?
Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is vice president in the interim government, added a rare note of support for the Brotherhood from the country's new leaders, writing on Twitter that he condemned the ?excessive use of force? and was trying to ?end the standoff in a peaceful manner.?
Kerry called on Egypt's leaders ?to respect the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression? and to open an inclusive political dialogue.
?Over two years ago, a revolution began. Its final verdict is not yet decided, but it will be forever impacted by what happens right now,? he said in a statement.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke by telephone with el-Sissi, urging him to exercise restraint and ?take steps to prevent further bloodshed and loss of life,? according to a Pentagon statement.
The violence broke out Friday night after a day of large, competing marches by supporters of Morsi and his opponents expressing solidarity with the military. At least eight people died Friday, but there was not the kind of widespread violence that many had feared after el-Sissi's speech Wednesday calling for demonstrations in support of the military.
That changed around 10:30 p.m., when groups of Morsi's supporters left their vast encampment in Nasr City, marching toward the central October 6 Bridge, where police officers were stationed, according to witnesses. Several people said that the protesters had left the camp because it had become overcrowded, and that people had fanned out from the encampment along several boulevards. Others said they had planned to march through a nearby neighborhood.
The group that came under attack walked down Nasr Street, past the reviewing stand where President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981, and the pyramid-shaped memorial to the unknown soldier across the street, toward the bridge.
?We didn't have any weapons,? said Mohamed Abdulhadi, who said he had joined the march, which was ?not violent.? More than 10 other witnesses confirmed his assertion.
The Interior Ministry released a video after the killings that it said showed Morsi supporters firing birdshot at the police and damaging property. It showed protesters throwing rocks, unidentified people wandering into traffic, and one man pulling out what appeared to be a silver pistol and firing it, although it is not clear who the man was or which side of the fighting he was on.
Mohamed Saeed, an agricultural engineer, said he and some of the other protesters had started to exchange words with the officers before even reaching the bridge.
?You know how it is,? he said. ?Some of us said some provocative things, and the tear gas started.? The protesters threw rocks, and the confrontation quickly escalated, Saeed and others said. The Morsi supporters feared that the police were preparing to storm their encampment, so they started building brick walls on the road to ?to prevent them from coming into the sit-in,? Saeed said.
An hour and a half after the clashes started, the police and their allies started firing live ammunition and pellet guns, Saeed said. Other witnesses said they had seen snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings.
Source: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130727/NEWS11/130729659/-1/rss04
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