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SECURITY FORCES BACKED by bulldozers moved in today on two huge protest camps set up in Cairo by supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi, launching a long-threatened crackdown that left at least 17 dead and many injured.
The operation began shortly after dawn when security forces surrounded the sprawling Rabaa al-Adawiya camp in east Cairo and a similar one at Al-Nahda square, in the centre of the capital.
Witnesses and an AFP correspondent said police rained canisters of tear gas down onto tents before entering Rabaa al-Adawiya, sparking pandemonium among the thousands of protesters who set up the camp soon after Morsi was ousted by the army on 3 July.
Men in gas masks rushed to grab each canister and dunk them in containers of water, as the main stage near the mosque of the camp blared Islamic anthems and protesters chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest.)
Clashes quickly erupted between protesters and security forces on one side of the camp, as automatic fire could be heard. It was not immediately clear who was doing the shooting.
(Video: Associated Press/YouTube)
Dismantling the camp
Television footage showed injured people being carried to a makeshift medical centre as well as police dragging away protesters, who have defied numerous ultimatums to end their demonstrations.
Protest leaders wearing gas masks stood defiantly on a stage while crowds of people wearing face masks stood amid the swirling tear gas as bulldozers began dismantling the camp.
Egypt’s interior ministry mid-morning said security forces have “total control” over Al-Nahda Square, the smaller of the two camps.
“Police forces have managed to remove most of the tents in the square,” the ministry said.
A security official told AFP that dozens of Morsi supporters had been arrested with the help of residents of the area.
Television footage showed protesters who had been rounded up sitting in the ground handcuffed and surrounded by security forces.
Families, with their children, carrying plastic bags were seen being escorted out of the square by police.
Railway authorities announced that all trains had been grounded to prevent protesters from moving outside of Cairo and reassembling.
Denounce the ‘massacre’
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood urged Egyptians to take to the streets in their thousands to denounce the “massacre”.
“This is not an attempt to disperse, but a bloody attempt to crush all voices of opposition to the military coup,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad al-Haddad said on Twitter.
Egyptian security forces throw tear gas towards supporters at the camp today (Image AP).
The Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp, where several Brotherhood leaders are staying, “is calling on Egyptians to take to the streets to stop the massacre,” Haddad said.
In a separate tweet, Haddad said at least 250 people were killed and over 5,000 injured in the crackdown. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the tolls.
An AFP correspondent counted 17 bodies at a makeshift morgue at Rabaa al-Adawiya, adding that many appeared to have died from gunshot wounds.
Egypt’s interior ministry said two members of the security forces were killed in the operation.
The crackdown came just hours after the United States urged the military-backed interim government to allow Morsi supporters to protest freely.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Washington regarded freedom to protest as a “key part” of the democratic process but would be concerned by reports of violence.
- © AFP 2013.
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The chiefs in Washington are loving this, perpetual chaos, all is going well in Egypt in their eyes
There is an arabic saying that roughly says “as goes cairo, so will we”. Egypt sets the tone for the entire Arabic world through its media, population and Universities.
It is control and order that the West is seeking, at any cost.
The whole Arab Spring has been a sham from the start, the US has been inconsistent in its support. Bahrain..the most popular uprising of all crushed with outrageous force, also in Saudi Arabia, yet they get none if any a bare minimum of media coverage or support from the western world….why? Because US puppets are already in power. Sick world
Ridiculous conspiracy theorising about the ‘West’, as if it could influence very much in Egypt. The Egyptian secularists who carry placards showing Obama in Islamic dress or in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood might have something to say about it.
As if it could influence much in Egypt? Your joking right? It’s got everything to do with it…snap out of the dreamworld your living in
The Egyptian army attacks the Muslim Brotherhood, and, in response, the Muslim Brotherhood attacks the… Christian minority. As this is written, Coptic churches (at least 6 so far) and businesses are being torched and Coptic communities attacked in towns in southern Egypt.
When you add this to the murderous attacks on hundreds of Christian communities across northern Nigeria, Iraq and Syria — all by similarly-inspired radical Islamic supremacists — this adds up to the single biggest freedom-of-conscience issue in the world today, yet you’d never know it from the mainstream media, which grossly under-report it. It seems that widespread rejection of Christian belief in the West fosters the attitude that persecution of Christians for their beliefs doesn’t matter — it’s not really a ‘cool’ cause to take up. Yet a widely held principle up to recently was “I may not agree with what you believe, but I’ll die for your right to profess it” — the essence of liberalism.
Don’t forget the deafening silence as Bethlehem is cleansed of Christians.
Where are all the pro-democracy countries now ??? silent as usual…..what an absolute sham we are living in..
The date for new elections should be set by the military straight way. If Morsi gets in again then he should rule. That’s democracy.
There was no condemnation of the military coup from our own government yet Morsi was only guilty of breaking his promise’s to the voters. I wonder would FG/Labour be so quite if it were themselves that were being ousted seeing as they are guilty of the same offence to the voters.
Does anyone else get the impression that it would take casualties in the triple figures before the Egyptian police might go “Ah, tone it down there lads”.
You’re clearing an area of civilians, not retaking a French town from the Nazis… If it happened in the states it would be considered an atrocity
It looks like that will happen today. According to the Sky News guy there were soldiers fully automatic in to the crowd and most of the shot people he saw had head and upper body wounds. The intention here by the army is for triple figures.
If you were a young Egyptian who supported democratically elected Morsi what argument could you have against those who said democracy failed and that it was time to fight.
Good to see the Arab Spring going so well! 1400 years of Islam, combined with a tribal culture, does not a democracy make!
Hmmm… Five hours in and only 12 comments. Now if the word ‘Israel’ was anywhere in the title of the story we’d have 112 by now — from the supporters of oppressed Arabs known as ‘pro-Palestinians’. (Just to compare: Egypt 50 times bigger than Israel, with 10 times its population)
The US and European ‘democracies’ prefer compliant dictators to democracy in the Middle East. When will they realise that democracy isn’t all that useful in Europe?
Maybe Islam is not in favour with young people across the Arab world?
The Iranians are stirring things up as always “”The Koran calls us to unity. The independence and territorial integrity of the Islamic world must be preserved – no split in the Islamic countries must be allowed” [ Ramazan Sharif of the revolutionary guards]
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