CAIRO—A 24-hour standoff between Egyptian security forces and antigovernment protesters holed up in a Cairo mosque ended amid gunfire and explosions late Saturday afternoon, with clashes leaving at least 173 dead across the country.Well, state forces obviously aren't taking any sh*t.
Antigovernment protesters erected barricades inside the al Fatah Mosque in Cairo's Ramses Square after deadly clashes Friday afternoon had turned the mosque into a makeshift morgue and medical center and a refuge for some 400 protesters later that evening.
But the competing narratives over what happened at the mosque Saturday reflects the deepening polarization between the Muslim Brotherhood and the government, and their vastly different versions of events.
The Brotherhood says it is fighting to preserve democracy, while the government claims it is cracking down on the movement as it conducts terrorist acts. Egypt's Brotherhood-led government was overthrown in a military coup last month.
On Saturday morning, security forces in armored personnel carriers surrounded the al Fatah Mosque with tanks and snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings. They appeared to fire the opening shots at about 1:30 p.m., although state TV reported that there were gunmen in the minaret that fired first.
Reporters inside the mosque, however, said they didn't see any arms there, where supporters of the Brotherhood-led Anti-Coup Alliance were holed up.
"No one inside has any guns, so why are they shooting them?" said Ahmed Atef, 32 years old, an onlooker.
Continue reading.
More video here, "Egypt: tear gas fired into besieged mosque."
And Russia's sending a diplomatic mission to Cairo?
That's sourced to Breitbart so we'll see how it plays out. But if true, what a monstrous slap in the face to Barack Hussein's administration.
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