Hundreds killed as Egypt smashes protests

Associated Press

CAIRO

In Egypt’s bloodiest day since the Arab Spring began, riot police Wednesday smashed two protest camps of supporters of the deposed Islamist president, touching off street violence that officials said killed nearly 300 people and forced the military-backed interim leaders to impose a state of emergency and curfew.

The crackdown drew widespread condemnation from the Muslim world and the West, including the U.S., and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei resigned as the interim vice president in protest — a blow to the new leadership’s credibility with the pro- reform movement.

“Today was a difficult day,” interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a televised address. While he regretted the bloodshed, he offered no apologies for moving against the supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, saying they were given ample warnings to leave and he had tried foreign mediation efforts.

The leaders of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood called it a “massacre.” Several of them were detained as police swept through the two sit-in sites, scores of other Islamists were taken into custody, and the future of the once-banned movement was uncertain.

Backed by helicopters, police fired tear gas and used armored bulldozers to plow into the barricades at the two protest camps in different sections of Cairo where the Morsi supporters had been camped since before he was ousted by the military July 3.

Army troops did not take part in the two operations, which began shortly after 1 a.m. EDT, although they provided security.

The smaller camp — near Cairo University in Giza — was cleared of protesters relatively quickly.

But it took about 12 hours for police to take control of the main sit-in site near the Rabaah al-Adawiya Mosque in Nasr City that has served as the epicenter of the pro-Morsi campaign.

The Health Ministry said 235 civilians were killed and more than 2,000 injured, while Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said 43 policemen died in the violence. The death toll was expected to rise.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the violence dealt a “serious blow” to Egypt’s political-reconciliation efforts.