Egypt: Clashes Between Army, Protesters Kill 54

July 8th, 2013

Via: CBC:

Egyptian soldiers and police clashed with Islamists protesting the military’s ouster of the president in bloodshed that left at least 51 protesters and three members of the security forces dead, officials and witnesses said, and plunged the divided country deeper into crisis with calls by the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party for all-out rebellion against the army.

The carnage outside the Republican Guard building in Cairo — where toppled President Mohammed Morsi was first held last week — marked the single biggest death toll since massive protests forced Morsi’s government from power and brought in an interim civilian administration.

Even before all the bodies were counted, with more than 300 wounded, there were conflicting accounts on how the violence began. Morsi’s backers said the troops attacked their encampment without provocation just after dawn prayers. The military said it came under assault first by gunmen.

Posted in Collapse, Dictatorship, War | Top Of Page

One Response to “Egypt: Clashes Between Army, Protesters Kill 54”

  1. JWSmythe says:
    July 9, 2013 at 2:26 am

    There’s something people always forget If you’re going to face a hostile force, ensure you have equal or better force.

    There is power in numbers. 1,000,000 angry citizens with rocks, bottles, and pitchforks can overpower a force of 1,000 armed military personnel. In time, the military forces will run out of ammunition, and/or have their weapons taken from them.

    People don’t like facing that option. If you’re going to stand up to the government, and the government still has control over the military and police, there will be massive causalities.

    In a smaller scale, consider a bank robber with a pistol, with 50 hostages. The robber typically has 5 to 15 shots. That’s up to 15 causalities. The remainder can overpower him, and end the situation immediately. No one wants to be the first one to rush him, and end up dead.

    Now, a poorly armed but larger force (protesters), facing a smaller well armed force, no one will be the first to push in. That’s why the causalities are so lopsided. If they had made a coordinated effort to fight, the news story would be that control over at least part of the military was taken by protesters.

    Because of this, you’ll rarely see a real military push to overthrow a government, regardless how bad the citizens feel the government is.

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