Morsi Supporters Storm Egyptian Government Building

VOA News 15-08-2013: Supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi are launching new protests, some setting fire to a government building in Cairo.

Egyptian state TV and witnesses say hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters attacked government offices Thursday in Giza, torching the entrance.  Separately, hundreds marched through Alexandria demanding Morsi's return.

The renewed protests and violence follow Wednesday's violent crackdown by Egypt's military on Morsi supporters gathered in protest camps around Cairo and fighting in Alexandria and Suez.

Video being distributed by the Muslim Brotherhood showed hundreds of bodies wrapped in shrouds at Cairo's El Iman mosque.  Egypt's health ministry says Wednesday's violence killed at least 525 people and wounded more than 3,700.  The Muslim Brotherhood has put the death toll at more than 4,500.

Crackdown

Authorities had warned for days they would move against the protest camps.

The interior minister in the military-backed interim government, Mohamed Ibrahim, defended the actions of security forces, insisting they used minimum force against the camps and only fired tear gas.  

Ibrahim blamed the Brotherhood for creating what he called "a state of mayhem" across the country by shooting at police, attacking government buildings and burning churches.   But witnesses reported security forces firing live ammunition.

One of Morsi's former advisers put some of the blame on the United States and Secretary of State John Kerry

Wael Haddara, now in Canada, said Thursday that Kerry's statements in the weeks before Wednesday's crackdown helped emboldening the military.

"Well I think whatever happens in Washington it is really in the manner of being too little too late," he said. "When Mr. Kerry said that the army was 'resetting things for democracy - restoring democracy' I think clearly the army understood that to be a green light, a carte blanche to do whatever they want to do and they've gone ahead and done it."

Curfew

Egypt's military has started imposing a new overnight curfew as part of a month-long state of emergency.

Also Thursday, Egypt's judiciary approved extending the detention of former president Morsi by another 30 days.

Pro-reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei resigned his post as interim vice president following Wednesday's violence.  He said he is not prepared to be held responsible for even "a single drop of blood."