More than 40 people were killed today in violence and gunfire outside the headquarters of the Republican Guard in Cairo, Egypt.
Officials said they had found bullets, birdshot and Molotov cocktails in the vicinity of the clashes.
Al-Ahram reported:
Prosecutors have begun on Monday afternoon an investigation into the bloody clashes between the Egyptian army and pro-Morsi protesters at the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo earlier in the day.
The clashes left at least 42 civilians dead and 322 injured.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian army said one officer died and 40 soldiers were injured, including seven in critical condition.
Prosecutors said they had found bullets, birdshot and Molotov cocktails in the vicinity of the clashes near the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo’s Nasr City.
A delegation of prosecutors visited Zenhom morgue where some of the dead were taken, while another interviewed victims in local hospitals…
… In an official statement published by Al-Ahram Arabic news website, the army said an “armed terrorist group” attempted to break into the Republican Guard headquarters in the early hours of Monday and “attacked security forces.”
The Muslim Brotherhood’s FJP, however, issued an official statement saying “peaceful protesters were performing the Fajjr (dawn) prayers” when the army “fired tear gas and gunshots at them without any consideration for the sanctity of prayers or life.”“This is also a violation against people’s right to peaceful protest,” it added.
Large numbers of women and young people sought shelter in a nearby mosque, the Brotherhood statement said, but the security forces “besieged the mosque and arrested anyone who came out of it.”
“This has never happened before in the history of the Egyptian army,” the FJP statement added.
