Al Qaeda affiliate urges attacks on Egyptian army.

Al Qaeda affiliate urges attacks on Egyptian army.

DUBAI | Reuters | 31 Aug 2013 ::  One of al Qaeda's most militant affiliates has called on Egyptians to take up arms against their army, saying a bloody crackdown on Islamist protesters showed peaceful methods were futile, according to an Internet statement posted on Saturday.

Scores of Egyptian security forces have been killed in a series of attacks by suspected Islamist militants - mostly in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula - since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was deposed last month.

Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence decades ago and denies any links with militants, including those in Sinai who have gained strength since President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down in 2011.

"There is nothing more right in God's religion (Islam) than those who speak of the infidelity, reneging on Islam and abandonment of religion, and call for the necessity to fight these armies, foremost of which is the Egyptian army," said Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, spokesman for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to the Arabic recording.

"The Egyptian army is part and a mere copy of these armies which are seeking in a deadly effort to prevent God's laws from being adopted and trying hard to consecrate the principles of secularism and man-made laws," he said.

Mounting insecurity in Sinai worries the United States because the area is next to Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, as well as the Suez Canal.

Adnani lashed out at the Brotherhood and the smaller, Salafist al-Nour party, saying they have been co-opted to non-violence and what he called the futile secular approach to power through elections and democracy, which he said had left Muslim Brotherhood members either in jail, dead or fugitives.(Courtesy:Reture)

Latest Egypt clashes kill 5 civilians, say Ministry.

Latest Egypt clashes kill 5 civilians, say 

Ministry.

Thousands of Mursi’s supporters had marched across the country
 on Friday denouncing the July 3 coup that overthrew the
 Islamist president. (File photo: Reuters)

Cairo | AFP | 31 Aug 2013 :: Five civilians died in clashes in Egypt on Friday when opponents and supporters of ousted President Mohammad Mursi clashed in several cities, the health ministry said on Saturday.

Three were killed in clashes in the Giza district in Cairo, one in the canal city of Port Said and one in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, the ministry said in a statement.

Thousands of Mursi’s supporters had marched across the country on Friday denouncing the July 3 coup that overthrew the Islamist president.

Separately, the interior ministry said two policemen were killed in militant attacks on Friday in North Sinai, where security forces have been battling a semi-insurgency since Mursi’s overthrow.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)

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>>>

Egypt Death Toll at Least 95, 874 Injured, State of Emergency.

Egypt Death Toll at Least 95, 874 Injured, State of Emergency.

Supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed
 Morsi, stand among debris and smoke in background
 as they confront Egyptian security forces trying to
clear the smaller of the two sit-ins, near the Cairo
University campus in Giza, Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday,
 Aug. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Imad Abdul Rahman)

AFRICA | 14 Aug 2013 :: At least 95 have been killed and 874 injured in a military crackdown on ousted president Mohammed Morsi’s supporters Wednesday. A nationwide state of emergency has been declared. 

Bulldozers demolish barriers, gunfire is frequent and prolonged in BBC footage. 

Media supportive of the military rule show infrared footage of pro-Morsi gunmen firing rounds; the claim is that Morsi supporters have contributed to Wednesday’s violence. 

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon urged Egyptian authorities to respond to ongoing demonstrations diplomatically. 

Ban’s office issued a statement Wednesday, saying: “With Egypt’s rich history and diversity of views and experiences, it is not unusual for Egyptians to disagree on the best approach forward.  What is important, in the Secretary-General’s view, is that differing views be expressed respectfully and peacefully.  To the Secretary-General’s regret, that is not what happened today.”

Egyptian security forces have stormed the main sit-in camp of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi in eastern Cairo after clearing out a smaller sit-in near Cairo University’s campus.

Wednesday’s developments are the latest chapter in the turmoil that has roiled Egypt since the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak and are likely to deepen the nation’s division between the camp of Islamists led by the Muslim Brotherhood on one side, and secularists, liberals, moderate Muslims and minority Christians on the other.(Courtesy:Epoch Times)