CAIRO — More violence is expected in Egypt after chaos swept through the country last week, leaving nearly 900 dead in four days of unrest and threatening to stall a political transition.
Egypt “is on a course for an incurable cycle of violence,” said Michael Wahid Hanna, a senior fellow at the New York-based Century Foundation.
“I don’t know if we’re very far off from seeing suicide bombings … and assassinations,” he said. “That’s where the country is headed.”
Already on Monday, Egyptian officials told the Associated Press that an ambush by militants in the Sinai region killed 24 policemen.
Over the weekend, the central al-Fateh mosque became the new battleground for unrest as pro-Morsi protesters marched to Ramses Square in a self-declared “Friday of Anger.” After fighting broke out with security forces, leaving 173 dead on Friday, protesters used the mosque as a makeshift hospital and morgue before it was surrounded, then cleared, by security forces Saturday.
Egyptian officials said Sunday that 79 were killed in Saturday’s clashes, bringing the four-day death toll to 890 since Wednesday, when security forces plowed into two protest camps, killing at least 638.
That didn’t include 3 dozen detainees killed Sunday night amid conflicting reports of an escape attempt in a prison truck convoy carrying 600 detainees en route to a northern Cairo jail. State news agency MENA reported the deaths occurred when security forces clashed with militants, while the Associated Press cited officials who blamed the deaths on tear gas fired into a truck after a police officer inside was captured by the prisoners.
Supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi canceled at least one of the protest marches they planned Sunday, citing security concerns. A Muslim Brotherhood-led coalition, furious over the ouster of Morsi on July 3, called off a rally at Roxy Square in Cairo “after reports of thugs on rooftops of surrounding buildings,” the Anti-Coup Movement said in a statement.
Meanwhile, angry assailants have attacked dozens of churches, Christian properties, police stations and government posts since Wednesday in retaliatory strikes against authorities, who cleared two major pro-Morsi protest camps, and their perceived backers — Christians.
“For the first time I fear walking in the streets,” said Cairo resident Dina Hosny, 24, who worries about additional attacks and now sees “violence as part of our everyday lives.”
Khalil Al-Anani, an expert on Egypt and Islamist movements, said it is unlikely the Muslim Brotherhood will turn to violence to achieve its political aims, but it doesn’t — and can’t — control all Islamists.
“If the state cannot include and engage many young Islamists … this will be a time bomb that can fire back on society and the state,” he said. “They will replace the ballot box by bullets.”
Some protesters vowed to fight if dissolved, democratically chosen institutions, including the disbanded parliament and 2012 constitution, are not restored by authorities.-USA Today
“If they destroy the way of democracy it will be a big problem for Israel and all the European and American people,” said Hamdy Al-Sagheer, an Arabic professor, at a Friday rally. “People will fight if we lose the way of democracy.”
