After three weeks of unrest, Sisi called last week for the public to give him a mandate to crack down on violence and "terrorism," prompting dueling protests in Cairo and elsewhere Friday. Just before 1 a.m. Saturday morning Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim announced the Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Rabaa and Nahda would be cleared “soon.” Clashes broke out at the edge of Rabaa as protesters moved to expand the sit-in toward the 6th of October Bridge, a major thoroughfare, and security forces fought back. By 1:45 a.m., bodies began arriving in the field hospital at Rabaa and within two hours many of those arriving bore gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to a Human Rights Watch. Doctors at the field hospital told Human Rights Watch that the killings appeared more targeted than in a previous massacre at a Republican Guard office in Cairo, where Morsi was believed to be held, on July 8. “This time it was like 80 percent were shot by snipers targeted from above,” versus 10 percent on July 8, a doctor named Fouad told HRW. The Ministry of Interior held a press conference hours later and blamed the Rabaa protesters for instigating a “crisis” and throwing tear gas canisters and Molotov cocktails at the security forces. The ministry insisted that no live fire was used by the police.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 05:04:39 +0000
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