Cario(ANN)Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood says at least 800 people have been killed and 5,000 others injured in the crackdown
by the Egyptian security forces on protest sit-ins held by the supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo.
The Brotherhood said the figure was provided by Raba’a hospital on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Interior Ministry claimed that 4 soldiers were killed in the clashes between the protesters and the security forces.
The Egyptian state TV has announced that the protesters have been evacuated from their camps in Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque and Nahda Square by the security forces.
Police reportedly used tear gas, armored cars and bulldozers to disperse Morsi supporters.
Egyptian authorities have grounded all trains to prevent protesters leaving the capital.
The Egyptian security officials said that some 200 supporters of Morsi who were captured in Rabba area were carrying weapons.
A number of leaders of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood were arrested, an official said.
Egypt’s Interior Ministry also said a number of Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been arrested.
“We have arrested a number of Brotherhood leaders but it’s too early to announce their names,” General Abdel Fattah Othman, a senior official in the Interior Ministry, told the privately-owned CBC TV channel.
Brotherhood leaders condemned the “massacre,” calling on the Egyptians to take into the streets and protest against the spiraling violence.
Egypt has plunged into unrelenting string of violence since General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the head of the Egyptian army pushed aside the first democratically elected president and declared chief Justice of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mansour as the interim president.
On August 12, the Anti-Coup Pro-Democracy Alliance called on people to hold nationwide rallies to counter the military clampdown on their sit-ins.
A Reuters correspondent saw dozens of people lying in the street with bullet and birdshot wounds. Pools of blood were everywhere.
“At 7 a.m. they came. Helicopters from the top and bulldozers from below. They smashed through our walls. Police and soldiers, they fired tear gas at children,” said teacher Saleh Abdulaziz, 39, clutching a bleeding wound on his head.
“They continued to fire at protesters even when we begged them to stop.”
Protesters ripped branches off trees to try to put out fires that spread through tents. Others smashed the pavement, grabbed chunks of cement and hurled them at police.
Egypt has been convulsed by political and economic turmoil since the 2011 uprising that ended 30 years of autocratic rule by US-backed President Hosni Mubarak, and the country is now more polarized than any time for many years.
There is deepening alarm in the West over the course taken by Egypt, which receives around $1.3 billion in military aid from the United States each year.
It also has a peace treaty with close US ally Israel and controls the Suez Canal, a vital waterway for global trade.