Egypt In State Of Emergency As Death Toll Passes 500 [Video]

Egypt has declared a state of emergency after violence on Wednesday. Over 500 lives have been lost after the Egyptian military forces broke up groups of pro-Morsi in aggressive purges. Some of the worst violence so far has come from the nation’s capitol, Cairo, where at least 200 have been killed.

Estimates of the current death toll vary widely. Rima News reports that the pro-Morsi Muslim Brotherhood has claimed that the true number of deaths in Egypt have passed 2,000. The continuing violence makes estimating an accurate death toll difficult.

After hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries in Egypt Wednesday, the government has put in place a month-long state of emergency. This includes a strict 7 pm curfew and will likely limit the military’s tolerance of protesters.

Interim Vice President, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mohamed ElBaradei, has resigned in protest of the Egyptian military’s use of force, reports NPR. This may mean that the interim government is losing support among liberal Egyptians.

President Obama, in a statement Thursday morning, says that the US does not support the Egyptian military’s actions. He has called for the government to respect the protesters and avoid violence. Obama says that the US will not be participating in planned military exercises with Egypt next month, reports CBS News.

Violent clashes between the military and demonstrators have been on the rise since the beginning of July. It was then that elected Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was removed from his office by the military. He has since been replaced by an interim government, which has suspended the constitution and put an end to the parliament.

The Muslim Brotherhood plans to march on Cairo Thursday to protest the violent crack down. They say they will not stop until the military is removed from power. However, leaders of the pro-Morsi demonstrators say that citizens in Egypt must only use non-violent tactics.

As violence continues in Egypt, worries are that the nation may be headed toward civil war.

[Image via Globovisión via photopin cc]