525 killed in deadliest crackdown on Morsi supporters in Egypt

Egypt's defiant Muslim Brotherhood today vowed to bring down the military-backed government as it called for a massive anti-regime rally, a day after over 525 people were killed in the deadliest crackdown by security forces on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
The health ministry said the death toll from nationwide violence in Egypt has climbed to 525, making it the bloodiest day since the Arab Spring in 2011 toppled longtime President Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising.
"We will always be non-violent and peaceful. We remain strong, defiant and resolved," Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad wrote on his Twitter feed.

"We will push (forward) until we bring down this military coup," he added.
Nationwide protests erupted yesterday after the crackdown by security forces on supporters of 62-year-old Morsi in Cairo and elsewhere killed hundreds of people. The protesters were demanding reinstatement of Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, who was deposed by the army on July 3.
Meanwhile, Brotherhood has said it planned to march in the capital, Cairo, today against the crackdown that, it claimed, left 2,000 people dead.

"Marches are planned this afternoon from Al-Iman mosque to protest the deaths," the Islamist group said in a statement even as the country remained in a state of emergency.

Egyptian interior ministry said that at least 43 police officers were also killed and more than 3,500 people injured during countrywide clashes yesterday after security forces evicted supporters of Morsi from two protest camps in Cairo.
Egypt's army-backed interim Prime Minister defended the deadly operation by security forces against supporters of Morsi camped at Rabaa al-Adaweya and al-Nahda.
In a televised statement, Hazem el-Beblawi yesterday said the decision to break up the protests "was not easy" and came only after the government had given mediation efforts a chance.
"We found that matters had reached a point that no self respecting state could accept," he said, citing what he describes as "the spread of anarchy and attacks on hospitals and police stations".

Police and troops used bulldozers, teargas and live fire to clear out two Cairo sit-ins that had become a hub of Muslim Brotherhood protests against the military.