By John Zangas
Casualties mounted in Egypt for a second day as Egyptian Army Forces and the Muslim Brotherhood continued to clash. The Egyptian Health Ministry reported Thursday that over 630 men, women and children had died in violent altercations. Three noted journalists were among those killed in the act of reporting the carnage.
Habiba Abd Elaziz, 26, who worked for the Dubai-based Xpress; Mick Deane, 61, a cameraman for Sky News; and Ahmed Abdel Gawad of the Egyptian newspaper Al Akhbar were killed.
Army forces continued to clear the pro-Morsi protest camps at Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo and a second camp in Giza. Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque was the scene of a horrific massacre on Wednesday.
The Muslim Brotherhood said as many as 2,000 were killed but an accurate count could not be verified, as Army forces would not give access to the mosques where the bodies lay.
As Thursday ended, the country was on the brink, as tensions and anger rose and word of the massacre spread.
Gehad Al-Haddad, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood called on Egyptians via Twitter to openly defy the army security forces after Friday prayers today. “#AntiCoup rallies tomorrow will depart from all mosques of #Cairo & head towards #Ramisis square after Jumaa prayer in “Friday of Anger,” he tweeted.
His call for defiance was met pre-dawn Friday with a mobilization of Egyptian Army tanks at the main squares around Cairo.
Interim Vice President and Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei resigned following Army Security force violence. In a written statement he said, “We have reached a state of harder polarization and more dangerous division, with the social fabric in danger of tearing, because violence only begets violence.”
The international community has called for restraint from both sides. Several countries, including Britain and France, called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations.
President Obama interrupted his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard to denounce the violence and cancel scheduled military training between Egypt and the US, but stopped short of suspending financial aid to the interim leadership.
The US gives Egypt $1.5 billion in aid, most of which is allocated to its Army.
As tensions escalate across Egypt, there is little influence that any government can leverage to calm the violence.
With Friday afternoon prayers hours away, a call by Muslim Brotherhood to openly defy the Army and its tanks makes more conflict almost a certainty.
