As Cairo reels, Egypt military's opponents vow daily protests

Violence swept through Egypt's capital today, killing at least 60 and overwhelming makeshift hospitals. 

|
Hassan Ammar/AP
Egyptian army soldiers take their positions on top and next to their armored vehicles while guarding an entrance to Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Friday.

A wave of violence swept across the Egyptian capital today as gunfire rang out in multiple neighborhoods where supporters of the deposed president, protesting in a “Day of Rage,” clashed with residents and security forces.

Unrest spread throughout the country, killing at least 60 people, as Egypt descended into even deeper instability following the police crackdown Wednesday on supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi. Officials said at least seven police stations came under attack today, and multiple churches were reported attacked.

As the dead and wounded poured into a mosque-turned-makeshift-hospital near the site of the fiercest fighting in the capital, in what is becoming a recurring scene in Cairo, the alliance that had organized for today's protests, including the Muslim Brotherhood, called on protesters to leave to avoid more bloodshed. The alliance also announced that protests would be held daily in Cairo, raising the prospect of further unrest as some protest leaders say it's getting more difficult to keep people angered by the deaths from turning to violence.

Told that private television stations were showing footage of armed men shooting automatic rifles in the protests, Mohamed Okda, a spokesman for the Anti Coup Alliance, made up of the Brotherhood and several Islamist parties, said leaders were calling for peaceful protest but “I wouldn't be surprised” if some young people were turning to violence.

“People are very angry,” he said. “The youth are basically beyond control. The youth are very angry, calling for blood, and we can't control them.”

He said the military and police were killing protesters with live ammunition. “We hope the military will come to its senses,” he said, but if not – “it's just going to be more violence.”

The Muslim Brotherhood is reeling from the police attack on two protest camps Wednesday. More than 638 people died when the police, using tear gas and live ammunition, dispersed the camps where Morsi supporters had camped for a month and a half, and violence erupted across Egypt. The death toll is likely far higher.

The camps were set up in opposition to the military's ouster of Morsi on July 3, which followed massive protests around the nation calling for Morsi to step down.

In the capital today, protesters gathered at dozens of mosques around the city, intending to converge on a central square. After Friday prayer, hundreds poured out of Al Nour mosque in the Abbaseya neighborhood, pumping their fists in the air and chanting against the military and the Army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Area residents hostile to the Islamists gathered to watch, tensely, as people filed out of the mosque and moved toward Ramsis square, the meeting point for all the Cairo marches, in the broiling afternoon heat.

But by the time the march reached Ramsis, the sharp sound of gunfire echoed across the square, and bleeding men were being ferried away by motorcycle. The fighting raged near a police station, where protesters appeared to be battling the police and civilians.

Some of the protesters viciously beat a man in civilian clothes, as some in the crowd shouted he was an Army officer. Though some tried to help him, the crowd pummeled the man until he was still, then carried him away by his arms and legs, his battered head lolling.

A nearby mosque was converted into a makeshift hospital, in what is quickly becoming a custom as violence roils the capital. While some were still burying the dead from Wednesday's violence, new casualties were brought up the blood-stained steps into Fath mosque, where dead and wounded protesters laid on the green carpet under soaring, beautifully decorated ceilings as doctors and medics worked desperately. By late afternoon, 27 bodies lay in rows on the floor; the badly wounded continued to pour in as frantic volunteers shouted and darted across the building.

The volunteers were unsuccessful in saving one man, whose shirt was soaked in blood from a gunshot wound. They pulled a wallet from the pants pocket of the now lifeless body, finding his national identity card to learn his name and hometown. Among the row of the dead, one man used a wet rag to wipe the blood off the face of a body. Another man sat at the head of one body, his face crumpled as he cried.

But most protesters said such danger did not deter them. “When you have an aim you can fight for it even if you might be hurt,” said Ramy Sameh. “Many of my friends died, and I can't be better than them. There is no option now. We go and then God will aid us. We do what we can do, what is our ability. If something is not right, we have to say it is not right."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to As Cairo reels, Egypt military's opponents vow daily protests
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0816/As-Cairo-reels-Egypt-military-s-opponents-vow-daily-protests
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe