On Sunday (11/8/13) rumours began to circulate that the Egyptian
military would move into clear the Muslim Brotherhood camps at the Rabea
al-Adaweya Mosque in Nasr city and in Al-Nahda Square at dawn on Monday
(12/8/13). In response the Brotherhood bused in thousands of extra
supporters from across Egypt in order to resist the clearance. With the
military not moving in on Monday by Tuesday (13/8/13) the Brotherhood
supporters were getting restless and itching for a confrontation.
This prompted them to stage a "Together Against the Coup and the
Zionists" protest march to the Ministry of the Interior headquarters
near Nober Pascha Street. When the roughly 2000 marchers arrived at the
building they were attacked by local residents armed with bottles and
stones. The Brotherhood supporters responded by throwing missiles at the
local residents prompting the police to intervene by firing tear gas in
order to keep the two groups apart. This prompted the violence to
spread to surrounding streets where rioting continued for a number of
hours. During the confrontation at least one member of the Brotherhood
was grabbed, beaten and stabbed by local residents. Later as Brotherhood
supporters were returning to the al-Nahda Square camp local residents
opened fire on them killing 1 and wounding 7 more. Almost as a reflex
the Brotherhood blamed the shooting on police officers disguised in
civilian clothes. With the security situation in the capital beginning
to spiral dangerously out of control the military authorised by the
President were left with little option other then to move in an clear
the Brotherhood camps immediately.
At around dawn today this is exactly what they did first clearing the
al-Nahda camp before moving on to the larger Rabea al-Adaweya camp. The
first problem they faced was that both camps were heavily fortified with
barricades made of steel and concrete. This meant that in order to gain
access the police backed by the military had to use bulldozers to break
down the barricades. As the Brotherhood supporters were quite happy to
stand up against the barricades as this was happening it created the
problem of people being run over and injured by flying debris. As the
police and soldiers moved into the camp amid the chaos gas fired cooking
stoves and petrol powered generators got knocked over starting fires
leading to explosions and injuries. The second problem the police and
military faced was that the Brotherhood were armed with everything from
clubs up to assault rifles and had spent many of the previous days
shouting slogans such as "Victory or Death." So as soon as the police
and military moved into the camps the Brotherhood supporters opened fire
on them forcing them to return fire in order to protect themselves. The
exact number of people killed is something that is going to take a few
days to work out however it is clear the Brotherhood got the massacre
they so desperately craved and worked so hard to provoke.
That was purely the Brotherhood's choice though because in all of the
scenarios I've played out in my head even with an unlimited number of
highly trained and well equipped riot specialists I could not think of a
way to clear encampments that are that heavily fortified and that
heavily armed without there being casualties and fatalities. It is worth
noting that at least 45 of those killed were police officers or
soldiers which is an incredibly high casualty rate for an army operating
on the streets of its own capital city.
The big mistake the military made was charging ahead with the clearances
without first cordoning off the camps. This meant that they were unable
to properly contain and control the situation. As a result as soon as
the clearances began the violence spilt out into the surrounding streets
with Brotherhood supporters running riot burning and looting Coptic
Churches, schools and business along with government buildings and
police stations. It was during this period that the majority of the
deaths occurred. This failure very nearly jeopardised the entire
operation with supporters who had been evicted from the al-Nahda camp
immediately heading to the Rabea al-Adaweya camp where they fought
running battles with the police and military on the outskirts of the
camp very nearly preventing the police and military from entering and
clearing the camp. Brotherhood supporters also took to the streets in
cities across Egypt where they were quickly set upon by local residents.
As security has always been a problem in Egypt's smaller cities such as
Alexandria there were very few police and soldiers to keep the
Brotherhood supporters and the local residents apart meaning that many
of Egypt's cities have today been engulfed by rioting with extensive
property damage, injury and death.
The question of course is what happens now? The worst case scenario is
that despite the necessary state of emergency and the overnight curfew
Brotherhood supporters will set up new camps across Cairo meaning that
we will have to go through all this all over again in the coming days.
Sadly there is some evidence that this is already happening with the
Brotherhood calling for supporters to gather at Mustafa Mahmoud Square
in Giza. I hope that camp doesn't take hold because I would much prefer
be talking about things like the appointment yesterday of 20 new local
governors, the proposed economic roadmap or the panel set up to re-write
the constitution rather than the Brotherhood and their violent
rampages.
(Originally Posted) 20:40 on 14/8/13.
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