EgyptEgypt under martial law; 525 die in clashes (updated)
The Egyptian government said 525 were killed, including 43 police officers, during clashes Wednesday between Egyptian security forces and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood as the Egyptian police and army moved to clear two sit-in camps in which supporters of Mohammen Morsi had been barricading. The Egyptian government has declared a month-long state of emergency throughout the country. The main features of the state of emergency include a curfew which would run from 7:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. in eleven of Egypt’s twenty-seven provinces, including Suez, heavy presence of military units in cities and towns, and restrictions on movement and travel.
The Egyptian government said 525 were killed, including 43 police officers, during clashes Wednesday as Egyptian security forces moved to clear two sit-in camps in which supporters of Mohammen Morsi had been barricading.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the raids were carried out as “a last resort” after serious government efforts to mediate a safe exit for protesters.
“After six long weeks of illegal, unauthorized sit-ins,” and after finding evidence of “torture” in the encampments, Egypt’s prosecutor general authorized security forces to break up the camps, Badr Abdelatty, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement.
Egypt’s Interior Ministry said its forces arrested 543 people involved in Wednesday’s clashes. “Some of them had heavy weapons, machine guns and birdshot, and huge amounts of ammunition,” the ministry said in a statement.
The prime minister, Hazem Beblawi, said the crackdown was essential to create stability, and praised security forces for what he characterized as maximum restraint — despite Egypt’s health ministry on Thursday putting the death toll at 525.
“Egypt cannot move forward, especially economically, in the absence of security,” Beblawi said in a televised statement. In 2011 Beblawi resigned from a previous government after a massacre of Coptic Christians.
The interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, also defended the crackdown, maintaining that the protesters had “threatened national security, incited violence and tortured and killed people.”
The Egyptian government has declared a month-long state of emergency throughout the country. The contingency plans for imposing a state of emergency, developed by successive military regimes, have been on-file for decades, and have been dusted up for use this month.
The main features of the plan include a curfew which would run from 7:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. in eleven of Egypt’s twenty-seven provinces, including Suez, heavy presence of military units in cities and towns, and restrictions on movement and travel.
Haaretz reports that security forces exchanged fire with demonstrators in the two sit-in camps in Cairo.
Well-organized supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, appearing to work from a prepared plan, fanned out in several cities and towns and set police stations and government building on fire in several cities.
Brotherhood followers also burned down the Alexandria public library, which, they charged, was spreading Western influence and ideas in Egypt.
Brotherhood supporters also burned down five churches.
The Egyptian Health ministry said that, so far, 525 have died and about 1,800 were wounded.
Brotherhood spokesmen, in an effort to inflame the situation, initially claimed that 2,200 were killed and more than 10,000
