Egypt’s Health Ministry Says 275 Killed in Turmoil

Egypt’s Health Ministry Says 275 Killed in Turmoil

Egyptian security forces killed more than 200 protesters and wounded hundreds of others on Wednesday in a daylong assault on two sit-ins by Islamist supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, that set off waves of violence in the capital, Cairo, and across the country.

By afternoon, the interim government appointed by Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi had declared a one-month state of emergency across the country, suspending the right to a trial or due process. The declaration returned Egypt to the state of virtual martial law that prevailed for three decades under President Hosni Mubarak before he was forced to step down in 2011.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the interim vice president and a Nobel Prize-winning former diplomat who had lent his reputation to convincing the West of the military-appointed government’s democratic intentions, resigned in protest, a spokeswoman said.

By evening, the Egyptian Health Ministry said 235 civilians and nearly 40 police officers had been killed in violence across the country, and said about 900 had been injured. But the large number of dead and critically injured Egyptians whom reporters for The New York Times saw moving through various makeshift field hospitals in Cairo indicated that the final death toll would climb much higher.

READ MORE » http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?emc=edit_na_20130814