Egypt erupts into violent chaos last week as security forces clashed with civilians as the former attempted to remove the sit-ins at 2 Cairo Squares: Rabaah al-Adawiya Square and Ramses Square. The civilian death toll is reported to have exceeded 750, but the numbers conflict from one media outlet to another.

The government suspended legal protections against arbitrary police action and authorized security forces to kill anyone who threatened a public facility.

New York Times reports:

“There was no sign that the chaos would end anytime soon. The Muslim Brotherhood, the main Islamist group behind Mr. Morsi, called for similar marches every day for the next week, and vowed to hold daily, nonviolent marches to Ramses Square for morning and evening prayers, declaring, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, that the bloodshed “irrigates the tree of liberty in Egypt.”

Reports say that many civilians on all sides are armed with guns. It appears that there are also provocateurs – masked men with machine guns who first appear to be joining the marches but later point the gun at the protesters.

Analyst Dr Hisham Hellyer’s interview on Aljazeera (16th August 2013) on the Egypt unrest:

For further reading:

1. Scores dead in Egypt’s ‘day of rage’ clashes – Middle East – Al Jazeera English http://ow.ly/o2HJs
2. Video: Two Narratives of the Violence in Egypt: http://ow.ly/o2HEt
3. The Big Picture “Bloodshed in Egypt”: http://ow.ly/o2HFt
4. 12 Horrifying And Tragic Images Of The Egypt Clashes: http://ow.ly/o2HDY
5. More pictures: http://ow.ly/o2HD9