CAIRO (AP) — Egypt is bracing for more violence after the Muslim Brotherhood called for nationwide marches after Friday prayers and a “day of rage” to denounce this week’s unprecedented bloodshed in the security forces’ assault on the supporters of the country’s ousted Islamist president that left more than 600 dead.

The government has authorized the use of deadly force against protesters targeting police and state institutions while the international community has urged both sides to show restraint and end the turmoil engulfing the nation.

At least 638 people were confirmed killed and nearly 4,000 wounded in Wednesday’s violence, sparked when riot police backed by armored vehicles, snipers and bulldozers smashed the two sit-ins in Cairo where ousted President Mohammed Morsi’s supporters had been camped out for six weeks to demand his reinstatement.

It was the deadliest day by far since the 2011 popular uprising that overthrew autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak and plunged the country into more than two years of instability.

The Health Ministry said that 288 of those killed were in the largest protest camp in Cairo’s Nasr City district, while 90 others were slain in a smaller encampment in Giza, near Cairo University. Others died in clashes that broke out between Morsi’s supporters and security forces or anti-Morsi protesters elsewhere in the Egyptian capital and other cities.

Violence spread on Thursday, with government buildings set afire, policemen gunned down and scores of Christian churches attacked. An angry crowd stormed the governor’s office in Giza, the city next to Cairo that is home to the pyramids. State TV blamed Morsi’s supporters for the arson and broadcast footage showing firefighters evacuating employees from the larger building of Giza’s government offices.

As turmoil spread, the Interior Ministry authorized the use of deadly force against protesters targeting police and state institutions. Egypt’s military-backed government also pledged to confront “terrorist actions and sabotage” allegedly carried out by Muslim Brotherhood members.

The Brotherhood, trying to regroup after the assault on its encampments and the arrest of many of its leaders, called for a mass rally today in a challenge to the government’s declaration of a monthlong state of emergency and a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Also Thursday, the U.N. Security Council urged both the Egyptian government and the Muslim Brotherhood to exercise “maximum restraint” and work toward national reconciliation.

In Cairo, weeping relatives filled the mosque-turned-morgue near the gutted pro- Morsi protest camp in Nasr City, spilled into the courtyard and the streets. Inside, the names of the dead were scribbled on white sheets covering the bodies, some of them charred, and a list with 265 names was plastered on the wall. Heat made the stench from the corpses almost unbearable as the ice brought in to chill the bodies melted and household fans offered little relief.

Many people complained that authorities were preventing them from obtaining permits to bury their dead, although the Muslim Brotherhood announced that several funerals had been held Thursday.

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu