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| People mourn sitting next to bodies of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi at the El-Iman mosque in Cairo's Nasr City, Egypt, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013. Egyptian authorities on Thursday significantly raised the death toll from clashes the previous day between police and supporters of the ousted Islamist president, saying hundreds of people died and laying bare the extent of the violence that swept much of the country and prompted the government to declare a nationwide state of emergency and a nighttime curfew. |
UNITED NATIONS
(AP) -- Weeping relatives in search of loved ones uncovered the faces
of the bloodied, unclaimed dead in a Cairo mosque near the smoldering
epicenter of support for ousted President Mohammed Morsi, as the death
toll soared past 600 Thursday from Egypt's deadliest day since the Arab
Spring began.
World condemnation widened for
the bloody crackdown on Morsi's mostly Islamist supporters, including an
angry response from President Barack Obama, who canceled joint
U.S.-Egyptian military maneuvers.
Violence
spread Thursday, with government buildings set afire near the pyramids,
policemen gunned down and scores of Christian churches attacked. As
turmoil engulfed the country, the Interior Ministry authorized the use
of deadly force against protesters targeting police and state
institutions.
The Muslim Brotherhood, trying
to regroup after the assault on their encampments and the arrest of many
of their leaders, called for a mass rally on Friday in a challenge to
the government's declaration of a monthlong state of emergency and a
dusk-to-dawn curfew.
At least 638 people were
confirmed killed and nearly 4,000 wounded in the violence sparked when
riot police backed by armored vehicles, snipers and bulldozers smashed
the two sit-ins in Cairo where Morsi's supporters had been camped out
for six weeks to demand his reinstatement. It was the deadliest day by
far since the 2011 popular uprising that overthrew autocratic ruler
Hosni Mubarak and plunged the country into more than two years of
instability.
Also on Thursday, The United
Nations Security Council called on both the Egyptian government and the
Muslim Brotherhood to exercise "maximum restraint" and end the violence
spreading across the country.
Council members called for national
reconciliation.
The Health Ministry said that
288 of those killed were in the largest protest camp in Cairo's Nasr
City district, while 90 others were slain in a smaller encampment at
al-Nahda Square, near Cairo University. Others died in clashes that
broke out between Morsi's supporters and security forces or anti-Morsi
protesters elsewhere in the Egyptian capital and other cities.
Mohammed
Fathallah, the ministry spokesman, said earlier that the blood-soaked
bodies lined up in the El Iman mosque in Nasr City were not included in
the official death toll. It was not immediately clear if the new figures
included the ones at the mosque.
Inside the
mosque-turned-morgue, the names of the dead were scribbled on white
sheets covering the bodies, some of them charred, and a list with 265
names was plastered on the wall. Heat made the stench from the corpses
almost unbearable as the ice brought in to chill the bodies melted and
household fans offered little relief.
Weeping
relatives filled the mosque courtyard and spilled into the streets. In a
corner, a woman cradled the head of a slain man in her lap, fanning it
with a paper fan. Nearby, an anguished man shouted, "God take revenge on
you el-Sissi!" a reference to the powerful military chief, Gen.
Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi.
Slumped over the body of
his brother, Ihab el-Sayyed said the 24-year-old was getting ready for
his wedding next week. "Last time I heard his voice was an hour or two
before I heard of his death," he said, choking back tears.
Over
the mosque speakers, announcements urged people to leave because their
body heat was making the humid conditions worse inside the mosque, where
posters of Morsi lay piled up in a corner.
Many
people complained that authorities were preventing them from obtaining
permits to bury their dead, although the Muslim Brotherhood announced
that several funerals had been held Thursday. Fathallah denied that
permits were being withheld.
"Bodies are
getting decomposed. We only want to bury them. This is unfair," said
Hamdan Abdullah, who had traveled from the city of Fayoum to retrieve
the body of his niece.
Omar Houzien, a
volunteer helping families search for their loved ones, said the bodies
were carried to the mosque from a medical center at the protest camp in
the final hours of Wednesday's police sweep because of fears they would
be burned.
Elsewhere, a mass funeral was held
in Cairo for some of the 43 security troops authorities said were killed
in Wednesday's clashes. Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in
charge of the police, led the mourners. A police band played solemn
music as fire engines bore the coffins draped in white, red and black
Egyptian flags in a funeral procession.
The deadly crackdown drew widespread condemnation from the Muslim world and the West.
Obama
canceled joint U.S.-Egypt military exercises scheduled for next month,
although he gave no indication that the U.S. planned to cut off its $1.3
billion in annual military aid to the country. The U.S. administration
has avoided declaring Morsi's ouster a coup, which would force it to
suspend the military aid.
"While we want to
sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot
continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and
rights are being rolled back," the U.S. president said, speaking from
his weeklong vacation in Massachusetts.
Obama
said he also ordered his national security team to "assess the actions
taken by the interim government and further steps that we may take as
necessary with respect to the U.S.-Egyptian relationship."
Egypt's
interim government issued a late night statement saying the country is
facing "terrorist actions targeting government and vital institutions"
by "violent militant groups." The statement expressed "sadness" for the
killings of Egyptians and pledged to work on restoring law and order.
The
statement also warned that Obama's position "while it's not based on
facts can empower the violent militant groups and encourage them in its
anti-stability discourse."
Egypt enjoys "full sovereignty and independence of its decision," the statement said.
The
biennial Bright Star maneuvers, long a centerpiece of the deep ties
between the U.S. and Egyptian militaries, have not been held since 2009,
as Egypt grappled with the fallout from the revolution that ousted
Mubarak. Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected
president in 2012 during Egypt's first democratic elections.
Despite the curfew and state of emergency, violence spilled over to a second day Thursday.
The
Interior Ministry said its decision to authorize police to use deadly
force came after an angry crowd stormed the governor's office in Giza,
the city next to Cairo that is home to the pyramids.
Associated
Press reporters witnessed the burning buildings, a two-story
colonial-style villa and a four-story administrative office on the road
leading to the pyramids on the west bank of the Nile River.
"The
ministry has given instruction to all forces to use live ammunition to
confront any assaults on institutions or the forces," the statement
read.
Egypt's military-backed government also
pledged to confront "terrorist actions and sabotage" allegedly carried
out by Muslim Brotherhood members.
State TV
blamed Morsi supporters for the arson and broadcast footage showing
firefighters evacuating employees from the larger building.
The
Brotherhood's website IkhwanOnLine said thousands of Morsi supporters
marched through Giza but were attacked by pro-military "militias." It
did not say how the government buildings were set on fire.
Attackers also set fire to churches and police stations across the country for a second day Thursday.
In
the country's second-largest city of Alexandria, Islamist protesters
exchanged gunfire with an anti-Morsi rally, leaving scores injured,
witnesses and security officials said. Attempts to storm police stations
in the southern city of Assiut and northern Sinai city of el-Arish left
at least six policemen dead and others injured.
Ishaq
Ibrahim of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said his group
had documented at least 39 cases of violence against churches,
monasteries, Coptic schools and shops in different parts of the country
on Wednesday.
Cairo, a city of some 18 million
people, was uncharacteristically quiet Thursday, with only a fraction
of its usually hectic traffic and many stores and government offices
shuttered. Many people hunkered down at home for fear of more violence.
Banks and the stock market were closed.
Fearful
of more violence Friday in response to calls for more protests by both
the Brotherhood and anti-Morsi camps, some main streets were closed and
people in many neighborhoods set up cement blocks and metal barricades.
Residents checked IDs in scenes reminiscent of the 2011 revolution when
vigilante-style groups set up neighborhood watches to prevent looting
and other attacks.
In Cairo's Nasr City
neighborhood, smoke rose from the burned-out Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque
compound that had been the epicenter of support for Morsi, its floor
covered with black debris and nearby trees and grass charred. A
makeshift field hospital was also gutted, its walls blackened and floors
covered in pools of brackish water.
The
turmoil is the latest chapter in a bitter standoff between Morsi's
supporters and the interim leadership that took over the Arab world's
most populous country following a July 3 coup. The military ouster came
after millions of Egyptians took to the streets to demand Morsi step
down, accusing him of giving the Brotherhood undue influence and failing
to implement vital reforms or bolster the ailing economy.
Morsi
has been held at an undisclosed location ever since. Other Brotherhood
leaders, including several arrested Wednesday, have been charged with
inciting violence or conspiring in the killing of protesters.
The
Brotherhood has spent most of its 85 years as an outlawed group or
enduring crackdowns by successive governments. The latest developments
could provide authorities with the grounds to once again declare it an
illegal group and consign it to the political wilderness.
