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| 136 Morsi supporters massacred in Egypt |
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.jpg) At least 136 supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, have been shot dead by security officials in what is the worst state-led massacre in the country since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, according to figures released by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, The Guardian reported.
The Egyptian Health Ministry said that it had counted only 20 dead so far -- though their figures are only based on bodies delivered to state institutions. Reporters at the scene counted at least 36 corpses in a single room.
The massacre took place in the small hours of Saturday morning, at a sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawiya, east Cairo, where tens of thousands of pro-Morsi supporters have camped since Morsi was deposed on July 3.
Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said the shooting started shortly before pre-dawn morning prayers on the fringes of a round-the-clock vigil being staged by backers of Morsi, who was toppled by the army more than three weeks ago.
"They are not shooting to wound, they are shooting to kill," Haddad said, adding that the death toll might be much higher.
Al Jazeera's Egypt television station reported that 120 had been killed and some 4,500 injured in the early morning violence near Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawia mosque.
Reporters at the scene said firing could still be heard hours after the troubles started.
"I have been trying to make the youth withdraw for five hours. I can't. They are saying they have paid with their blood and they do not want to retreat," said Saad el-Hosseini, a senior Brotherhood politician.
"It is a first attempt to clear Rabaa al-Adawia," he said.
There was no immediate comment from state authorities on what had happened.
The clashes started after police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Morsi supporters who tried to extend the sit-in in eastern Cairo.
Al Jazeera showed medics desperately trying to revive casualties arriving at a field hospital set up near the mosque.
El-Haddad said police started firing repeated rounds of tear-gas at protesters on a road close to the mosque sometime after 3:00 a.m. local time. Shortly afterwards, live rounds started flying, hitting people at close range.
The deaths come just two weeks after military and police officers massacred 51 Morsi supporters at a nearby protest in east Cairo.
They also happened less than 24 hours after hundreds of thousands of anti-Morsi protesters gathered in Egyptian streets to give General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the army chief who ousted Morsi, their assent to crackdown on what he had on Wednesday called "terrorism".
On July 3, Sisi announced that Morsi, a former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was no longer in office and declared that the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mahmoud Mansour, had been appointed as the new interim president of Egypt. The army also suspended the constitution.
Army officials said Morsi, who took office in June 2012, was being held “preventively” by the military.
On July 5, Muslim Brotherhood supreme leader Mohammed Badie said the coup against Morsi was illegal and millions would remain on the street until he is reinstated as president.
Badie vowed to "complete the revolution" that toppled the Western-backed regime of former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The Egyptians launched a revolution against the pro-Israeli regime on January 25, 2011, which eventually brought an end to the 30-year dictatorship of Mubarak on February 11, 2011.
Earlier on Friday, Egyptian state media reported that Morsi is being detained while prosecutors investigate claims that he conspired with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas to carry out attacks during the revolution.
The Muslim Brotherhood said in a statement issued later in the day that the charges against Morsi showed the "complete bankruptcy of the leaders of the bloody coup."
Egyptians "reject the return of the dictatorial police state and all the repression, tyranny and theft it entails," Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Ahmed Aref said in the statement.
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