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Hundreds Dead in Egypt Crackdown

CAIRO—Egypt's military regime, aided by snipers and bulldozers, swept the streets of Islamist protesters Wednesday—setting off a day of violence that left at least 525 people dead, the government fractured and ties with its international partners in tatters.
Cairo's streets were calm Thursday morning following a curfew overnight, though funerals for the dead and a march planned by the Muslim Brotherhood are likely to inflame tensions later in the day.
Raba'a al Adiwiya square in Nasr City, sanitation crews worked in the shadow of a burned out mosque collecting the piles of rotting food, ripped clothes and detritus that are the last remains of the Muslim Brotherhood tent city.
At midday Thursday, dozens of eager Egyptians gathered at the gates of the mosque, smiling and snapping photos of themselves at what one middle-aged woman gleefully called "the last cave of the terrorists," referring to the supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi who were brutally cleared from the same site Wednesday. The crowds exuded a sense of triumphalism, clapping the shoulders of the military patrol who had set up checkpoints at the once-busy intersection now scarred with burned hulks of cars.
Only one street away, however, life was starting to get back to normal. A shopkeeper scrubbed the rust-colored blood stains that smeared the pavement. Standing over a mop and bucket of sudsy water, he expressed hope for a return to normalcy. "I won't dance on the graves of the dead. I don't want to talk about anything but the future, said Mohammed Basha, the shop keeper.
Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers stormed police stations Wednesday, burned down churches and battled with government supporters in several neighborhoods, after police sweeps left scores of protesters dead at two Cairo squares. The raid ended more than a month of sit-ins by thousands of Brotherhood supporters—sometimes joined by families, and daring the government to disperse them—who demanded the reinstatement of Mr. Morsi.
Egypt's interim president declared a monthlong, national state of emergency—raising Egyptians' fears of extended conflict, further crackdowns and the prospect that the military regime they struggled to overthrow in 2011 was reasserting control.
The country's interim vice president, Mohamed ElBaradei, resigned. His exit stripped away an important veneer of civilian participation in the regime set up by the military's chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who responded to popular protests against Mr. Morsi by removing him and installing the interim government.
Swift and severe condemnation of the deadly attacks and state of emergency rolled in from Turkey, Europe and the United Nations. The U.S., one of Egypt's chief allies and benefactors, called the events deplorable and threatened to call off joint military exercises that were set to start next month.
Wednesday's state of emergency also left many Egyptians worried about the return of a dominant narrative of Egyptian politics over the past several decades—that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement could be forced to go underground and become more violent. That happened in the 1960s, when the Brotherhood was outlawed and embraced a campaign of political assassinations.
The emergency law recalled the 1981 statute used after a Brotherhood offshoot assassinated then-President Anwar Sadat. The law, applied during ousted President Hosni Mubarak's presidency, saw 30,000 political dissidents jailed.
Interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi said on state television Wednesday that the government was struggling to maintain security. "The emergency law is very necessary in this current situation. That is why we chose the lesser of two evils," he said.
Egyptians had braced for an attack on pro-Morsi sit-ins, which took place on Cairo's Raba'a al Adiwiya and Nahda squares, since the military removed the elected president amid mass popular support on July 3.
But the nature of the strike that came at 7 a.m. Wednesday was in contrast to recent police vows to cordon off the protesters in a bid to choke them of food and water deliveries.
"I woke up to bulldozers and tents on fire," said one protester who had been living in Raba'a square for the past month.
Helicopters could be seen circling over the square as the raids began. Snipers were visible on surrounding rooftops. Tear gas filled the air.
Several slain protesters were seen near the square and at a nearby hospital with gunshot wounds in their heads, sides and chests. Images provided by journalists and other observers also quickly circulated on social media, showing what appeared to be dozens of corpses laid side to side on hospital floors.
By late Wednesday, the government had taken control of both protest sites, according to state television.
The Associated Press cited the Ministry of Health as saying 525 people were killed across the country, with 3,717 injured. Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said 43 policemen died in the assault, the Associated Press reported.
The Brotherhood placed the number of fatalities far higher—saying 2,200 people had been killed and more than 10,000 wounded.
A spokesman for the Brotherhood's political arm, Gehad al Haddad, denounced the government's clearing operations as "a massacre."
Later Wednesday, at least eight government buildings, including police stations and municipal offices, were burned across Egypt, a military spokesman said.
Footage showed police burned alive after protesters stormed a police station in Kerdasa in Giza, part of greater Cairo. The Brotherhood's ability to mobilize supporters threw into question the depth of the interim government's popular support.
The violence also touched members of Egypt's small Christian communities, whom many Brotherhood supporters have accused of supporting the coup. The military spokesman said shops owned by Christian minorities in Suez and two churches were destroyed by pro-Brotherhood protesters.
Wednesday's broader battles between Brotherhood supporters and government security forces backed by regular civilians illustrate the deep divisions on Egypt's streets, where neighbors are split over whether Egypt should become a secular or Islamic state.
"This only has one name: terrorism," said Hassan Mohamed, a 25-year-old Egyptian who supported the government's crackdown on the sit-ins. He pointed to a factory that he said Brotherhood supporters had set on fire, the flames consuming the entire 10-story building. "They are terrorizing the city and they are terrorizing us."
Pro-Morsi protesters screamed and clapped on the street. "With our blood and with our soul we will sacrifice for Islam and bring Sisi down," they said.
Civilians battling the Brotherhood supporters responded: "The army and the people [are] one hand!"
The U.S. has so far refused to freeze nearly $1.3 billion in American military aid for Egypt's generals. But it is a "serious possibility" that the U.S. would scrap plans to hold so-called Bright Star military exercises with Egypt, a senior U.S. official said.
"Today's events are deplorable and they run counter to Egyptian aspirations for peace, inclusion, and genuine democracy," Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday at the State Department. "We also strongly oppose a return to a state of emergency law and we call on the government to respect basic human rights."
With Egypt's government vowing to break up the pro-Morsi protests in recent weeks, Mr. ElBaradei—the interim vice president and a leader of Egypt's secular political forces—had provided a key voice for restraint, according to people familiar with the situation.
Mr. ElBaradei's resignation statement reinforced concerns that the government's targeting of the Brotherhood had put the nation on a perilous road.
"We've arrived to a state of divide and polarization that's much more dangerous than before," Mr. ElBaradei said.
Morsi supporters who had been camping out in the pro-Brotherhood tent city in Raba'a, which occupies a main artery of Cairo for the past month, described overwhelming police force to clear the sit-in Wednesday morning.
The protester who said he had been on the square for a month said he navigated alleyways to escape Raba'a and the snipers that occupied the tall buildings encircling the sit-in.
Snipers were seen on several rooftops on streets just outside Raba'a, giving cover to soldiers and police—some wearing balaclavas and others gas masks—which created a cordon around Raba'a to prevent Brotherhood supporters from reinforcing the sit-in.
The government forces were joined by ordinary Egyptians, who also turned out to prevent Brotherhood reinforcements from reaching the square.
The crowd quickly came under fire from the direction of the security forces. A woman who had been tear gassed screamed, "God help us! We are unarmed!"
Amid thick plumes of tear gas, ambulances were unable to get through to Raba'a. The wounded were instead brought to the ambulances on motorcycle and then taken to nearby hospitals. A Muslim Brotherhood pickup truck with a shot and wounded protester was stopped by a pro-government mob.
The Egyptian army blocked reporters from going to the sit-ins, countering earlier police promises to invite the press and human-rights activists to observe the clearing of the sit-ins.
"They're killing people! Go take photos!" one motorcyclist screamed while taking his finger and making a slitting gesture across his throat.
The government praised the performance of its security forces.
Our "forces have exercised self-restraint and professionalism in their actions, this is reflected in the low number of injuries," a statement from the Egyptian government that was read on state television said.

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