A main government installation near Cairo was attacked and 11 security personnel were gunned down in new eruptions of violence following the military-backed government’s deadly suppression of an Islamist protest. The U.S. canceled joint war games with Egypt to signal its outrage over a death toll that increased to almost 600.
Hundreds loyal to ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi attacked the governor’s offices in Giza near Cairo, some hurling firebombs and firing guns, governorate spokesman Amin Abdel-Moneam said yesterday by phone. Clashes also erupted elsewhere across the riven nation as the violent breakup of two pro-Mursi protest camps deepened the fault lines Islamists and their rivals have drawn. Forces were told to use live bullets to fend off assaults on buildings or troops, the government said in an e-mailed statement. Islamists denied carrying out any attacks.
Mursi’s Islamist supporters, who say his July 3 overthrow by the military was illegal, vowed yesterday to continue their protests until he is reinstated. Hamza Zawba, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, described the police raids on the encampments as “a massacre,” saying, “We have no option but to continue to demonstrate.”
Streets in Egypt’s ordinarily teeming capital of 19 million people were mostly deserted throughout the day and army vehicles were deployed in the streets around one of the disbanded encampments. Seven soldiers and four police officers were shot dead in the Sinai peninsula and outside Cairo, officials said. Egypt’s benchmark government bonds slumped for a second day and the nation’s default risk climbed.
[h=2]International Condemnation[/h]Two policemen were killed outside Ismailia, east of Cairo, after unidentified people fired on their car, the Ismailia Security Directorate said in an e-mailed statement. Security forces were besieging the Al-Iman mosque in Cairo, where bodies of victims were being kept, according to Al Jazeera television.
International outrage over the assault on the protest mounted. The U.K., France and Australia called yesterday for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting on the violence.
President Barack Obama, interrupting his vacation to announce that the joint military exercise scheduled to begin next month had been called off, said “we deplore violence against citizens.” He warned that Egypt’s military-backed government has embarked on a “dangerous path.”
“While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back,” Obama said.
The U.S., which has a decades-old alliance with Egypt’s army and provides it with more than $1 billion in annual aid, already postponed delivery of four fighter jets to Egypt and Obama said his advisers are reviewing other steps.
[h=2]Mediation Foundered[/h]Police charged into the camps after international efforts to mediate an end to the weeks-long standoff foundered. The government imposed a one-month state of emergency after the raid, giving itself broader powers of detention, and imposed a curfew on large parts of the nation. The death toll rose to at least 578, with 4,201 hurt, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported. The Muslim Brotherhood says the figure is much higher.
About 200 people already had been killed in violence between the opposing camps since Mursi’s removal.
The government warned it would end the unrest, saying it was “determined to face terror and sabotage acts committed by elements of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Zawba, the spokesman of the Freedom and Justice party, denied allegations the group attacked police stations, churches or any public installations as authorities claimed. He said the government staged the violence to discredit Islamists.
[h=2]Charred Mosque[/h]Bulldozers razed barricades at Rabaa square in Cairo, site of one of the two encampments, opening some side streets to traffic as army officers looked on. Its mosque, where a makeshift field hospital had been set up until police destroyed it, was charred. Small clouds of white smoke lingered inside, while bloodied sheets were scattered on the ground outside.
“Fire was coming from all directions, nobody knew what was happening,” said Wael Mohamed, 37, at the mosque where he took refuge two days ago. “The bombs they were throwing would land on somebody or something and burn them down.”
Army tanks and police armored vehicles were deployed in the streets around the mosque, and the two main roads that branch out from the square were still closed to traffic shortly before the curfew started at 7 p.m. local time. A soldier atop the mosque’s minaret was cheered by several onlookers as he took down a large poster of Mursi. Trucks were removing rubble and metal planks among other remains from the square.
[h=2]Casualty List[/h]About a mile (1.6 kilometers) away, a list bearing the names of at least 245 dead people hung outside the Imam mosque, where the wounded and corpses were taken after Rabaa was stormed. A woman sitting by a body asked God to take revenge on what she called the oppressors. At least three of the corpses were completely charred.
The violent putdown of the protest created a rift within the government as well as criticism from abroad. Its most prominent member, Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, saying he didn’t want to bear responsibility for “bloodshed that could have been avoided,” resigned as vice president.
“The military was always, and remains, the dominant political and economic force in the country,” said Ian Bremmer, founder of Eurasia Group, in an interview yesterday on the “Bloomberg Surveillance” program. “You have a real metastasis of extremism on the ground. There are very few moderates left. What had been one of the most important moderating countries for stability in the Middle East is now in free fall.”
[h=2]Bonds Slump[/h]The turmoil sent Egypt’s benchmark government bonds slumping for a second day, with yields at a five-week high. The yield on 5.75 percent notes maturing in April 2020 rose 22 basis points to 9 percent at 5:55 p.m. yesterday in Cairo, the highest on a closing basis since July 9 and taking the two-day surge to 68 basis points.
Credit default swaps, contracts insuring the nation’s debt, have jumped 45 basis points in two days to 795, according to CMA data. The stock exchange was shut yesterday after the central bank ordered banks to close.
To contact the reporters on this story: Salma El Wardany in Johannesburg at [email protected]; Ola Galal in Cairo at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at [email protected]
Enlarge image
[h=3]Violence Convulses Egypt as Obama Calls Off War Games[/h]
Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images
Bystanders, firefighters and workers stand by the governor's offices in Giza, near Cairo, after it was attacked on August 15, 2013.
Bystanders, firefighters and workers stand by the governor's offices in Giza, near Cairo, after it was attacked on August 15, 2013. Photographer: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images
7:06
Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Thomas Byrne, senior vice-president for sovereign risk at Moody's Investors Service, talks about the credit ratings outlook for Egypt, the Philippines and Japan. Egypt’s army-backed government declared a state of emergency following police clashes with Islamist protesters, as deaths from the crackdown passed 500. Byrne speaks with Rishaad Salamat and Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "Asia Edge." (Source: Bloomberg)
3:03
Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) –- U.S. President Barack Obama, former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner and Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris offer their views on violence in Egypt and political unrest in the country. This report also contains comments from Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co.; Brian Katulis, a national security analyst at the Center for American Progress, and Dalibor Rohac, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. (Source: Bloomberg)
7:52
Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama speaks about the unrest in Egypt and the decision to cancel a scheduled joint military exercise between the U.S. and Egypt. Obama speaks from his family's vacation rental home in Chilmark, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard. (Source: Bloomberg)
Hundreds loyal to ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi attacked the governor’s offices in Giza near Cairo, some hurling firebombs and firing guns, governorate spokesman Amin Abdel-Moneam said yesterday by phone. Clashes also erupted elsewhere across the riven nation as the violent breakup of two pro-Mursi protest camps deepened the fault lines Islamists and their rivals have drawn. Forces were told to use live bullets to fend off assaults on buildings or troops, the government said in an e-mailed statement. Islamists denied carrying out any attacks.
Mursi’s Islamist supporters, who say his July 3 overthrow by the military was illegal, vowed yesterday to continue their protests until he is reinstated. Hamza Zawba, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, described the police raids on the encampments as “a massacre,” saying, “We have no option but to continue to demonstrate.”
Streets in Egypt’s ordinarily teeming capital of 19 million people were mostly deserted throughout the day and army vehicles were deployed in the streets around one of the disbanded encampments. Seven soldiers and four police officers were shot dead in the Sinai peninsula and outside Cairo, officials said. Egypt’s benchmark government bonds slumped for a second day and the nation’s default risk climbed.
[h=2]International Condemnation[/h]Two policemen were killed outside Ismailia, east of Cairo, after unidentified people fired on their car, the Ismailia Security Directorate said in an e-mailed statement. Security forces were besieging the Al-Iman mosque in Cairo, where bodies of victims were being kept, according to Al Jazeera television.
International outrage over the assault on the protest mounted. The U.K., France and Australia called yesterday for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting on the violence.
President Barack Obama, interrupting his vacation to announce that the joint military exercise scheduled to begin next month had been called off, said “we deplore violence against citizens.” He warned that Egypt’s military-backed government has embarked on a “dangerous path.”
“While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back,” Obama said.
The U.S., which has a decades-old alliance with Egypt’s army and provides it with more than $1 billion in annual aid, already postponed delivery of four fighter jets to Egypt and Obama said his advisers are reviewing other steps.
[h=2]Mediation Foundered[/h]Police charged into the camps after international efforts to mediate an end to the weeks-long standoff foundered. The government imposed a one-month state of emergency after the raid, giving itself broader powers of detention, and imposed a curfew on large parts of the nation. The death toll rose to at least 578, with 4,201 hurt, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported. The Muslim Brotherhood says the figure is much higher.
About 200 people already had been killed in violence between the opposing camps since Mursi’s removal.
The government warned it would end the unrest, saying it was “determined to face terror and sabotage acts committed by elements of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Zawba, the spokesman of the Freedom and Justice party, denied allegations the group attacked police stations, churches or any public installations as authorities claimed. He said the government staged the violence to discredit Islamists.
[h=2]Charred Mosque[/h]Bulldozers razed barricades at Rabaa square in Cairo, site of one of the two encampments, opening some side streets to traffic as army officers looked on. Its mosque, where a makeshift field hospital had been set up until police destroyed it, was charred. Small clouds of white smoke lingered inside, while bloodied sheets were scattered on the ground outside.
“Fire was coming from all directions, nobody knew what was happening,” said Wael Mohamed, 37, at the mosque where he took refuge two days ago. “The bombs they were throwing would land on somebody or something and burn them down.”
Army tanks and police armored vehicles were deployed in the streets around the mosque, and the two main roads that branch out from the square were still closed to traffic shortly before the curfew started at 7 p.m. local time. A soldier atop the mosque’s minaret was cheered by several onlookers as he took down a large poster of Mursi. Trucks were removing rubble and metal planks among other remains from the square.
[h=2]Casualty List[/h]About a mile (1.6 kilometers) away, a list bearing the names of at least 245 dead people hung outside the Imam mosque, where the wounded and corpses were taken after Rabaa was stormed. A woman sitting by a body asked God to take revenge on what she called the oppressors. At least three of the corpses were completely charred.
The violent putdown of the protest created a rift within the government as well as criticism from abroad. Its most prominent member, Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, saying he didn’t want to bear responsibility for “bloodshed that could have been avoided,” resigned as vice president.
“The military was always, and remains, the dominant political and economic force in the country,” said Ian Bremmer, founder of Eurasia Group, in an interview yesterday on the “Bloomberg Surveillance” program. “You have a real metastasis of extremism on the ground. There are very few moderates left. What had been one of the most important moderating countries for stability in the Middle East is now in free fall.”
[h=2]Bonds Slump[/h]The turmoil sent Egypt’s benchmark government bonds slumping for a second day, with yields at a five-week high. The yield on 5.75 percent notes maturing in April 2020 rose 22 basis points to 9 percent at 5:55 p.m. yesterday in Cairo, the highest on a closing basis since July 9 and taking the two-day surge to 68 basis points.
Credit default swaps, contracts insuring the nation’s debt, have jumped 45 basis points in two days to 795, according to CMA data. The stock exchange was shut yesterday after the central bank ordered banks to close.
To contact the reporters on this story: Salma El Wardany in Johannesburg at [email protected]; Ola Galal in Cairo at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at [email protected]
Enlarge image
[h=3]Violence Convulses Egypt as Obama Calls Off War Games[/h]
Bystanders, firefighters and workers stand by the governor's offices in Giza, near Cairo, after it was attacked on August 15, 2013.
Bystanders, firefighters and workers stand by the governor's offices in Giza, near Cairo, after it was attacked on August 15, 2013. Photographer: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images
7:06Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Thomas Byrne, senior vice-president for sovereign risk at Moody's Investors Service, talks about the credit ratings outlook for Egypt, the Philippines and Japan. Egypt’s army-backed government declared a state of emergency following police clashes with Islamist protesters, as deaths from the crackdown passed 500. Byrne speaks with Rishaad Salamat and Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "Asia Edge." (Source: Bloomberg)
3:03Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) –- U.S. President Barack Obama, former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner and Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris offer their views on violence in Egypt and political unrest in the country. This report also contains comments from Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co.; Brian Katulis, a national security analyst at the Center for American Progress, and Dalibor Rohac, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. (Source: Bloomberg)
7:52Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama speaks about the unrest in Egypt and the decision to cancel a scheduled joint military exercise between the U.S. and Egypt. Obama speaks from his family's vacation rental home in Chilmark, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard. (Source: Bloomberg)