Many of 74 pro-Morsi protesters shot in Cairo were targeted killings

Human Rights Watch: Many of the at least 74 pro-Morsy protesters killed in clashes with Egypt’s riot police and plain clothed men who stood alongside were shot in the head or chest. They were killed on July 27 over a period of several hours during clashes on a road near the Muslim Brotherhood’s sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawiya in eastern Cairo.

Human Rights Watch interviewed seven witnesses to the violence and reviewed extensive video footage of the events. Medical staff interviewed by Human Rights Watch judged some of the deaths to be targeted killings because the position of the shots would likely result in death.

The New York Times reports: In the attack on Saturday, civilians joined riot police officers in firing live ammunition at the protesters as they marched toward a bridge over the Nile. By early morning, the numbers of wounded people had overwhelmed doctors at a nearby field hospital.

One doctor sat by himself, crying as he whispered verses from the Koran. Nearby, medics tried to revive a man on a gurney. When they failed, he was quickly lifted away to make room for the many others.

McClatchy reports: A brief visit to a field hospital – one of three treating casualties – showed the brutality of what had taken place. A McClatchy reporter counted 27 dead laid out on the hospital’s floor, and as she left, three more bodies arrived, adding to a frantic and horrific scene. At least three of the dead had been shot in the head, and the gaping wounds left the victims’ brains exposed.

Over and over, hospital workers would move a body to the ground and search the pockets for an identification card. When they found one, they wrote the deceased’s name on an arm. They then tied the body’s hands and toes together, to prevent arms and legs from flopping around as the corpse was moved. Often the workers had put a white wrap around the head to cover the gunshot wounds. Piles of national identification cards and personal belongings, like bloodied shirts and pants, were piled up nearby.

The only movement was that of doctors who seemed to jump around the corpses, reaching for bandages and the plaster needed to prepare shrouds, where the deceased’s name would be written again. One man who’d been assigned to clean blood from the floor shuffled through the scene, armed with a mop and a bucket that appeared to hold more blood than water. Over and over he went over the same spot near one head, as the blood kept pouring out.

Doctors said the injuries could only have come from professional marksmen. Ebtesan Zain, a gynecologist, said she came to help her fellow doctors only to discover she was not needed – everyone she encountered was dead.

“Those injuries had to be done by snipers. It couldn’t be anything else,” Zain said. “They were shooting directly in the head between the eyes and in the chest.”

Reuters reports: Thousands of supporters of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood stood their ground in Cairo on Sunday, saying they would not leave the streets despite “massacres” by security forces who shot dozens of them dead.

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2 thoughts on “Many of 74 pro-Morsi protesters shot in Cairo were targeted killings

  1. La vérité

    Robert Fisk
    Sunday 28 July 2013
    Eyewitness in Egypt: ‘Most were shot in the face – only one in the back’
    The hospital next to the Rabaa mosque was filled with the blood of 37 corpses, the doctors using two weeks’ worth of medical supplies in two hours………
    AND, the White House’s silence is deafening…… the occupant being an advocate of Democracy and Change!!!

  2. charlie

    Moresi was taking the country to a place the majority did not want to go. He had replaced high ranking military and intelligence officers that supported his radical adjenda. Freedom was being snuffed out until the military took back the reins of power. Ofcourse Morsi supporters did not give back power without a fight but in the end a represenative form of government that respects christians and other beliefts will take hold and Egypt will be better off for it.

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