At Least 65 Mohamed Morsi Supporters Killed in Cairo

Egyptian security forces opened fire on a Muslim Brotherhood protest early Saturday morning, killing roughly 65 supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi.

The slayings took place at a sit-in east Cairo, where tens of thousands of Morsi supporters have camped since he was thrown out of office by a military coup July 3. It comes just two weeks after security forces slaughtered 51 Morsi supporters at a nearby protest.

The event constitutes “the worst state-led massacre since the fall of Hosni Mubarak,” wrote Patrick Kingsley of The Guardian. Scores of Morsi supporters have been killed since his overthrowing in early July.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

Patrick Kingsley at The Guardian:

In what is the worst single mass killing in Egypt since the fall of president Hosni Mubarak two-and-a-half years ago, a Brotherhood spokesman said 66 of the party’s supporters were shot and killed on the fringes of a sit-in at a Cairo mosque demanding the return of former president Mohamed Morsi, who was deposed on 3 July, and another 61 were “brain dead” on life-support machines. Government officials claim that the number of dead was 65, a death toll greater than the Republican Guards massacre on 8 July that saw 51 killed.

The deaths came as 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 north-east Cairo, Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement said.

“They are not shooting to wound, they are shooting to kill,” said Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad. “The bullet wounds are in the head and chest.”

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