Egypt's carnage kills 578 as crisis deepens.

Egypt's carnage kills 578 as crisis deepens.

A man grieves as he looks at one of many bodies
 laid out in a make shift morgue after Egyptian
security forces stormed two huge protest camps
at the Rabaa al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda squares
where supporters of ousted president Mohamed
 Morsi were camped, in Cairo, on August 14,
 2013. — Photo AFP

CAIRO | AFP | 16 Aug 2013 ::  At least 578 people were killed in the violence that swept Egypt Wednesday, the health ministry said, with more than 300 of them losing their lives after police assaults on Cairo sit-ins.

The death toll included 43 policemen and 318 protesters killed in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda square protest camps, senior health ministry official Khaled al-Khatib told AFP Thursday. In total, 535 civilians died nationwide.

The army-backed interim government imposed a month-long nationwide state of emergency, and curfews in Cairo and 13 other provinces.

Shortly after the curfew ended on Thursday morning, light traffic began returning to Cairo's streets, with roads blocked for weeks by the pro-Morsi protests now reopened.

A health ministry official said at least 300 civilians had been killed throughout the country, updating an earlier toll. The interior ministry added that 43 security personnel had lost their lives.

Egypt's press carried photos Thursday of Morsi supporters brandishing weapons and throwing stones at police during the previous day's confrontations.

“The nightmare of the Brotherhood is gone,” daily Al-Akhbar's front page headline read.

“The Brotherhood's last battle,” added Al-Shorouk.

At least four churches were attacked, with Christian activists accusing Morsi loyalists of waging “a war of retaliation against Copts in Egypt”.

The day's violence was the worst since the 2011 uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak, with an AFP correspondent counting at least 124 bodies in makeshift morgues in the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest site.(Courtesy:Dawn)Read More>>>

Gunmen attack Egyptian police station in Sinai.

Gunmen attack Egyptian police station in Sinai.

Two dead, six wounded in Islamist terrorist raid on security post near Gaza border

10 Jul 2013 :: Islamist gunmen attacked a police station in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula early Wednesday morning, killing two and injuring six in the latest flare-up of violence in the increasingly chaotic border region.

According to Reuters, the attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades and firearms at the building, but AFP said mortars and machine guns struck the Central Security Forces outpost. It was not clear whether the casualties in the attack were military personnel.

Other simultaneous attacks reportedly took place at nearby security checkpoints.

The attack outside the city of Rafah, which borders the Gaza Strip, was the latest in a series of attacks believed to have been carried out by Islamist terrorist groups in the lawless territory since last week’s military coup in Cairo.

Gunmen shot and killed an Egyptian soldier near the northern Sinai city of el-Arish Sunday night, a day after a Coptic priest was gunned down in the same town by suspected militants.

Islamist gunmen have carried out a slew of attacks on northern Sinai towns since the Egyptian military deposed president Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday. In daylight raids Friday, gunmen killed five Egyptian soldiers in el-Arish and Rafah. In the wake of the assaults, Egypt shuttered its border with the Gaza Strip at Rafah and placed security forces in the restive Sinai Peninsula on high alert.

Islamist terrorist groups have grown more daring since the 2011 Egyptian revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, and have carried out regular attacks on UN and Egyptian forces in the Sinai Peninsula, kidnappings of tourists, and raids on the gas pipelines that pump fuel to Israel and Jordan.(Courtesy:The Time of Israel )