The Egyptian government said on Thursday it was determined to confront "terrorist acts" by the Muslim
Brotherhood, a day after security forces raided the group's protest camps in
Cairo and hundreds of people were killed.
A government statement said it saw a
"criminal plan to demolish the pillars of the Egyptian state", but it
said it sought an "inclusive political process" open to anyone who
was not involved in violence.
This as state television said quoting
the Interior Ministry that Egyptian security forces will use live ammunition to
counter any attacks against themselves or public buildings.
The announcement came hours after
protesters torched a government building in a Cairo suburb.
Earlier in the day, the state news agency said that Egyptian judicial authorities have extended deposed President Mohamed Morsi's detention period for 30 days.
Morsi, who was overthrown by the army on July 3, is being held at an undisclosed location on allegations of murder and spying.
This comes as the bodies of more than 250 people killed in Egypt's political violence are being held at a mosque in northeast Cairo, Al Jazeera's Egypt news channel reported, showing footage of rows of corpses in white shrouds.
The Health Ministry's death toll stands at 525, based on bodies that had been transported to hospitals and morgues.
Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman, Khaled el-Khateeb, told The Associated Press that the number
of injured in the previous day's violence has also risen to 3,572.
Accordingly, Egyptian authorities referred 84
people from the city of Suez, including Muslim Brotherhood members and
supporters, to military prosecutors on Thursday on charges of murder and
burning churches, the state news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said it plans to hold a march in Cairo, one day after security forces mounted a violent crackdown on its members that killed hundreds of people.
"Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and its allies have suffered a 'very strong blow' from a state security crackdown and their central coordination has been lost, a spokesman said on Thursday.
Gehad El-Haddad also said two leaders of the group were shot when police raided two Cairo protest camps of supporters of deposed president Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday and the violence means anger "is beyond control now."
Earlier, traffic had started flowing through the area of Cairo where supporters of Morsi set up a protest camp at the heart of a power struggle between Islamists and the army-backed government, said a Reuters witness.
Wednesday's violence began when police moved to clear two sit-in camps in Cairo by supporters of Mohammed Morsi, ousted in a military coup on July 3. The clashes there later spread to elsewhere in Cairo and a string of other cities.
The violence prompted the government to declare a nationwide, month-long state of emergency.
Elsewhere, at least four Egyptian
soldiers were shot dead by unknown gunmen near the city of El-Arish in the
lawless North Sinai region on Thursday, security and medical sources said.
In a separate incident, five soldiers were
injured when gunmen opened fire on an army tent.
Obama's statement:
US President Barack Obama spoke
out against the violence in Egypt, condemning a military crackdown
there and saying the United States had canceled joint military exercises
scheduled for next month.
"The United States strongly condemns
the steps that have been taken by Egypt's interim government and security
forces," Obama said from his vacation home on the Massachusetts island of
Martha's Vineyard.
"We deplore violence against
civilians. We support universal rights essential to human dignity, including
the right to peaceful protest."
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel:
For his part, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he called his Egyptian counterpart to make clear that violence and hundreds of deaths across Egypt are putting key elements of the longstanding U.S.-Egyptian defense cooperation at risk.
Hagel said he told Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that the United States remains ready to work with all parties to help achieve a peaceful, inclusive way forward, and the Pentagon would maintain a military relationship with Egypt despite cancelling a bilateral military exercise.
"But I made it clear that the violence and inadequate steps towards reconciliation are putting important elements of our longstanding defense cooperation at risk," Hagel said in a statement.
Reactions:
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said
on Thursday it would bring down the "military coup" and remained
committed to peaceful activism after around 300 people were killed in violence
triggered by the government's decision to break up Islamist protest camps.
"We will always be non-violent and
peaceful. We remain strong, defiant and resolved," Brotherhood spokesman
Gehad El-Haddad wrote on his Twitter feed.
"We will push (forward) until we bring
down this military coup," he added.
Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande summoned Egypt's ambassador on Thursday, demanding a quick end to the state of emergency imposed by the military authorities and urging the release of prisoners as a first step towards renewing dialogue.
Hollande relayed France's "very serious concern" about Wednesday's security crackdown on supporters of Egypt's deposed Islamist President Morsi and "underlined that the state of emergency must be quickly lifted."
"He firmly condemned the bloody violence in Egypt and demanded an immediate halt to the crackdown," the Elysee Palace said in a statement. "The head of state asserted that everything must be done to avoid civil war. Freeing prisoners, in respect of legal proceedings, could be a first step towards the resumption of talks."
Similarly, the German foreign ministry declared that it has summoned the Egyptian ambassador to Germany following the deadly clashes that erupted in Egypt.
This as European Union foreign ministers are likely to meet next week to discuss Egypt, Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said .
"We tried to mediate together with the United States, but it failed because the military accepted no compromises," Bonino said in comments to website Affaritaliani.it. "A meeting of EU foreign ministers is foreseen for Monday or Tuesday."
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the meeting had not yet been finalized because there had not yet been a response from all the foreign offices, but said one was "likely".
For her part, the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on all sides in Egypt to "step back
from the brink of disaster" a day after hundreds were killed when security
forces crushed Islamist protest camps.
Pillay, a former UN war crimes judge, said
that the heavy toll pointed to "an excessive, even extreme use of force
against demonstrators",
"There must be an independent,
impartial, effective and credible investigation of the conduct of the security
forces. Anyone found guilty of wrongdoing should be held to account," she
said in a statement issued by her Geneva office.
In turn, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called for the UN Security Council to convene quickly and act after what he described as a massacre in Egypt.
"Those who remain silent in the face of this massacre are as guilty as those who carried it out. The UN Security Council must convene quickly," Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara.
This as, Russia called on
its citizens not to travel to Egypt due to the troubled security situation in the
touristic cities.
For its part, Denmark suspended
the assistance provided to Egypt within two direct cooperation projects with
the government and the Egyptian public institutions.
Meanwhile, the president of Tunisia's governing moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, said Wednesday's violence was "a disaster resulting from overturning the legal & constitutional order."
In an emailed statement, Rachid Ghannouchi added: "Our message to our brothers and sisters in Egypt: you will defeat dictatorship and your peaceful struggle will defeat blood and bullets."
Similarly, Norway said it had "recently" frozen export licenses for military equipment to Egypt.
This comes as the United Arab reaffirmed its support for the crackdown. "What is regretful is that political extremist groups have insisted on the rhetoric of violence, incitement, disruption of public interests and undermining of the Egyptian economy, which has led to the regretful events today," said the statement, published in English on Thursday.
The UAE provided $3 billion of the $12 billion total financial aid promised by wealthy Arab Gulf nations to Egypt following Morsi's overthrow.
For its part, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged restraint on all sides and called for the Egyptian government to release political prisoners. "The government of Pakistan expresses its dismay and deep concern over the use of force by the Egyptian security forces against unarmed civilians," the statement said.
This as the Afghan government condemned the "killing of civilian protesters" and expressed hope that "our brothers and sisters in Egypt to find a peaceful political solution soon."
As well, the Spanish government said it regrets the violent crackdown and also condemned "attacks on public buildings and churches that have taken place in the wake of these events, perpetrated by violent extremist groups."
For his part, Pope Francis urged prayers for "peace, dialogue and reconciliation for that dear land."
REUTERS/LBCI
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