Egypt's Brotherhood alleges Cairo massacre

At least 42 dead in shootings at sit-in in Egyptian capital, demanding
reinstatement of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

A deadly shooting at the site of a sit-in by Muslim Brotherhood
supporters in Cairo, demanding the reinstatement of ousted President
Mohamed Morsi, has left many people dead.

The Egyptian health ministry said at least 42 people had been killed
and more than 300 injured the incident early on Monday morning.

Mohamed Mohamed Ibrahim El-Beltagy, a Brotherhood MP, described the
incident as a "massacre" during dawn prayers, after police had stormed
the site.

About 500 people were also reportedly injured.

A doctor told Al Jazeera that "the majority of injured had gunshot
wounds to the head".

The Brotherhood said the dead and the injured have been taken to a
makeshift hospital in Nasr City, a neighbourhood in the Egyptian
capital.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Gehad Haddad, a spokesman for Muslim
Brotherhood, said that at around 3.30 in the morning, army and police
forces started firing at sit-in protesters in front of the Republican
Guard headquarters in Cairo.
?We have people hit in the head, we have bullets that exploded as they
entered the body, cluttering organs and body parts? he said.

?Every police force in the world understands how to disperse a sit-in.
This is just a criminal activity targeting protesters.?




But the military said a "terrorist group" had tried to storm the
Republican Guard facility, where Morsi is reportedly being held. It
also said that an officer had been killed.

An Al Jazeera correspondent said military checkpoints been deployed
around Nasr City.

?We?ll stick to our ground?

Brotherhood's Haddad said there were two things ?the bloodbath? was
trying to do.

?First is that we leave streets and forego the objective of bringing
democracy in Egypt after 60 sixty years of military tyranny or they
think that our blood is cheaper than any other?s blood in Egypt and no
one would care,? he said.

?We are sticking to our ground, we will not be brought into a cycle of
violence, we know how deadly that would be. Even if that means we will
have to become the punching bag of the rest of society and our blood
will flow for the rest of Egyptians to wake up and the rest of the
world to understand that we are adamants of bringing democracy to our
country.?

Dozens have died and more than 1,000 people have been injured in
street clashes between supporters and opponents of Morsi in the
aftermath of the military coup last Wednesday.

The latest violence further raised political tensions, even as the
country's interim leadership struggled to find a consensus on who
should be the prime minister.

The Salafist Nour Party announced it was withdrawing from talks over
new government in protest against Monday's fatal shootings.

Earlier reports said interim president Adly Mansour was leaning
towards appointing centre-left lawyer Ziad Bahaa Eldin as prime
minister, after members of the Nour Party expressed concern at an
earlier suggestion that the job could go to Nobel Laureate Mohamed
ElBaradei.

But some Nour Party members expressed concern that the candidates had
political affiliations.

Younes Makhyoun, Nour's leader, told Reuters: "Both are from the same
party, the National Salvation Front, this is rejected. I fear it would
be going from one exclusive approach to another," referring to
accusations that the Brotherhood tried to monopolise power.

Meanwhile, the popular Salafist preacher Yaser Borhamy told Al Jazeera
that he has nothing against Bahaa el-Din, but "they would rather have
someone who does not belong to a political party - a pure technocrat if
such thing exists," said Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid.

She said others from Al Nour had been seen on local media channels
saying they approve of Bahaa el-Din.

AFP reported that the prime minister would be named on Monday, quoting
the interim president's adviser.

Nour had signed up to the army's roadmap for the political transition,
giving Islamist legitimacy to an overthrow rejected by Islamic parties
aligned to Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood.

That has given it leverage over the choice of the next prime
minister.

Brotherhood defiant

Unlike Nour, its bigger rival the Brotherhood has said it would have
no part in the military-backed political process.

Thousands of its supporters are camped out in a suburb of northeastern
Cairo, with chants often heard of "coup, coup, coup!".



The army has denied it staged a coup, saying instead it was merely
enforcing the will of the people after mass protests on June 30 calling
for Morsi's resignation.

The pro-Morsi camp is refusing to budge until its leader is restored -
an unlikely outcome.

On the other side of the political divide, hundreds of thousands of
Morsi's opponents poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square, the cradle of the
popular uprising to oust him.

On Sunday night, a carnival atmosphere took hold, and a troupe of folk
musicians played darabukka drums and mizmar flutes as others danced and
let off fireworks.

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