Military clash in Cairo kills 50 in country’s deadliest single incident since 2011

Egyptian soldiers shot and killed at least 40 civilians Monday, according to the Ministry of Health, after opening fire on a group of protestors outside the Republican Guard Headquarters in Cairo. 

The Muslim Brotherhood says its members were staging a peaceful sit-in outside the facility where they believe former President Mohamed Morsi is being held. It was the deadliest single incident of violence in Egypt since the 2011 revolution that ousted then-leader Hosni Mubarak.

More than 300 civilians were wounded in the incident, according to the New York Times, expected to increase tensions with Morsi supporters after the military removed the democratically elected leader from office. Egypt has been without a functioning government since Morsi was deposed Wednesday. 

The military says some protestors tried to storm the barracks and called them part of a “terrorist group.” Brotherhood members, along with others who support the reinstatement of Morsi, had been staging the sit-in for days. They say they were peaceful and the attack by the army was unprovoked. Some witnesses say pro-Morsi supporters, largely devout Muslims, were performing dawn prayers at the time.

The violence seems to contradict their originally stated goal of preventing civil unrest in Egypt, said Kristen Chick, reporter for the Christian Science Monitor.

“At this point, I don’t think it matters what the army says, the supporters of the president are going to see this as a massacre,” Chick said.

Bloody photos and video appeared on television and social media showing several bodies lying on the ground, and doctors and medical personnel attending to the wounded. Bullet casings found on the ground around the barracks were imprinted with the stamp of the Egyptian Army.

The military says it saw protestors shooting handmade guns, but video evidence taken from above the scene shows that happening after the military’s shots were fired.

Not wanting to give the new leadership legitimacy, the Muslim Brotherhood has announced its intention to expand protests around the country. 

“More and more supporters of the president are going to be coming to the street,” Chick said. “That means they’re either going to bump into opponents of the president or the military and police and we don’t know yet where they’re going to go but I certainly see the potential for more violence.”

U.S. Senator John McCain in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, called for the United States to halt aid to Egypt. Under U.S. law, a military coup is supposed to automatically trigger a suspension of aid.

“It was a coup and it was the second time in two-and-a-half years that we have seen the military step in. It is a strong indicator of a lack of American leadership and influence,” McCain said.

Egyptian Ambassador to the United States Mohamed Tawfik refused to call the military action a coup.

“Egypt has not undergone a military coup and it is certainly not run by the military. Today there is an interim president in place,” Tawfik said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”