By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
CAIRO, EGYPT
(ANS) -- More than 100 people have been
killed and 1,500 injured at a protest held by supporters of ousted
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, doctors say.
However, a story by the BBC reported that the health ministry has put the death toll lower, at 38.
The
army ousted Morsi on July 3. He has been formally accused of murder,
relating to a 2011 jail outbreak, and of links to the militant group
Hamas.
Both pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators held huge protests overnight in the capital.
According
to the BBC, the anti-Morsi camp occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square in
support of the army, after its chief, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had
urged people to demonstrate to provide a mandate for its intervention.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Morsi supporters continued their sit-in protest at the mosque in the Nasr City area.
On
Saturday, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim vowed to end the sit-in,
saying local residents had complained about the encampment.
The
BBC reported he said the protest would be "brought to an end soon, and
in a legal manner" with an order from the prosecutor, although this has
yet to happen.
The BBC's Jim
Muir in Cairo says the latest vi
olence is the most serious since the army's intervention to remove
President Morsi, but this does not appear to have been a planned
campaign to clear the area around the mosque.
"Shooting to kill"
It
appears that clashes began after some of the Morsi supporters tried to
block a main road in the area, and security forces responded.
The
state news agency Mena quotes a security official as saying they had
been trying to stop fighting between rival sides, and that eight
security personnel had been injured.
The BBC said the official added that live fire had not been used, only tear gas.
Muslim
Brotherhood's spokesperson says the international community must step
in. However, a BBC correspondent said medics at the hospital believed
about 70 percent of the casualties were caused by live fire - with many
of the victims hit in the chest or head by snipers firing from rooftops.
Ahmed Nashar, a Brotherhood spokesman witnessed what happened near the Nasr City mosque wh
ere demonstrators built a wall to protect themselves.
"When
I arrived, bullets were whizzing past my ears," he told the BBC. "Today
was just brutal - people were fired at, with live firearms."
The
BBC correspondent says Morsi supporters are furious about the role the
military is taking, and in particular the head of the army, General
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom they say is killing Egyptians.
Egypt's
pro-Muslim Brotherhood TV station, Ahrar 25, quoted the coalition that
supports Mr Morsi - the National Coalition for Supporting Legitimacy -
as saying it held Gen Sisi responsible for the deaths at the mosque
protest.
There has also been
violence in Egypt's second city of Alexandria, where at least 10 people
have been killed in clashes between rival factions.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she "deeply deplored" the latest deaths in Egypt.
The
BBC reported UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said, "Now is the time
for dialogue, not confrontation. It is the responsibility of l
eaders on all sides to take steps to reduce tensions."
Morsi accused
Morsi,
Egypt's first democratically elected president, has been formally
remanded in custody at an undisclosed location for an initial 15-day
period, according to a judicial order on Friday.
The order was the first official statement on Morsi's legal status since he was overthrown.
The
BBC said he has now been formally accused of the "premeditated murder
of some prisoners, officers and soldiers" when he and several Muslim
Brotherhood leaders were freed during a breakout at a Cairo prison in
Jan. 2011.
He is alleged to have plotted attacks on jails in the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.
Morsi
is also accused of conspiring with the Palestinian militant group
Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and has strong links with the Muslim
Brotherhood.
Two human rights activists visited Morsi's place of detention on Friday, although he reportedly refused to meet them, instead se
nding his chief of presidential staff Refaa el-Tahtawy - who is also held at the location.
The BBC said Tahtawy told the visitors they were being treated well but complained that they were unable to meet relatives.
On Saturday, the Interior Minister Ibrahim said Morsi would be transferred to Torah Prison, where Mubarak is being held.
| Jeremy Reynalds
is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer
and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest
emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org
He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New
Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in
Los Angeles. His newest book is "A Sheltered Life." Additional details on "A Sheltered Life" are available at http://www.ashelteredlife.net. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. |
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