Egypt Erupts Again

More than 100 people were killed and countless injured early this morning when Egyptian security forces opened fire on a pro-Morsi sit-in demonstration in the Nasr City district of Cairo. Mosa’ab Elshamy was on the scene:

His comprehensive report:

I went to Rabaa at 2 am last night after I heard the [pro-Morsi] sit-in might be dispersed. When I got there, the shooting had already started. It was unclear to me who ‘started’ the attack. But the clashes were at the beginning of Tayaran street, 100 metres away from the sit-in. There was a non-stop sound of gunshots.

The dark meant it was suicide to stay there. So I went to Rabaa’s makeshift hospital. Most of the cases I saw where people shot in the leg and chest with live bullets. Hours later, I counted 24 dead bodies at the morgue. I saw at least 3 men who were shot in the head. Some claimed snipers were on October bridge, which would make sense.

After dawn I went to the frontlines. Next to the police there were armed civilians who seemed to be a mix of residents and thugs. I was on Morsi-supporters’ side of the clashes for about 5 hours and honestly saw no arms with them. Pro-Morsis mostly just took cover, threw rocks, fireworks and gas canisters back until they got shot at & carried away. Then repeat.

I didn’t see any military involvement. Except when soldiers at Manasa shot in the air and caused both sides to back away for a while. My conclusion is that this was, undoubtedly, a horrific assault by MOI + ‘civilians’ with tear gas, rubber bullets and live fire.

Elshamy also took a series of harrowing photos, which can be seen here. More tweets on the carnage: