Post date: Jul 27, 2013 5:19:54 PM
Muslim Brotherhood releases video showing overnight clashes between Egyptian security forces and Mursi supporters.
CAIRO, EGYPT (JULY 27, 2013) (BROTHERHOOD) - Egyptian security forces shot dead dozens of supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Saturday (July 27), witnesses said, days after the army chief called for a popular mandate to wipe out "violence and terrorism."
A video handout provided by the Muslim Brotherhood showed riot police firing weapons on top of vehicles. Another clip showed an unknown man firing a weapon and an on-screen strapline saying: "Camera operators targeted by police forces during Al-Azhar university massacre."Reuters cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Men in helmets and black police fatigues fired on crowds gathered before dawn on the fringes of a round-the-clock sit-in near a mosque in northeast Cairo, Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood movement said.
The bloodshed, near the military parade ground where President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981, has rocked a country already struggling with the transition to democracy two years afterHosni Mubarak was swept from power.
A Muslim Brotherhood website said 120 people had been killed and some 4,500 injured. A Reuters reporter counted 36 bodies at one morgue, while health officials said there were a further 21 corpses in two nearby hospitals.
Activists rushed blood-spattered casualties into a makeshift hospital. Some were carried in on planks or blankets. One ashen teenager was laid out on the floor, a bullet hole in his head.
Egypt's Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim accused the Brotherhood of exaggerating the death toll for political ends. He said only 21 people had died and denied police opened fire.
Ibrahim said local residents living close to the Rabaa al-Adawia mosque vigil had clashed with protesters in the early hours after they had blocked off a major bridge road. He said that police had used teargas to try to break up the fighting.
Well over 200 people have been killed in violence since the army toppled Mursi on July 3, following huge protests against his year in power. The army denies accusations it staged a coup, saying it intervened to prevent national chaos.