Turmoil that has convulsed Egypt for weeks has deepened as security forces shot dead more than 130 Muslim Brotherhood supporters before pre-dawn prayers near Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawia mosque on Saturday.
The police and armed civilians opened fire Saturday with live ammunition on protesters against Egypt’s new military government, witnesses said, killing scores of people as hopes faded that the Egyptian military would reach any political accommodation with the Muslim Brotherhood and its ousted president, Mohamed Morsi.
Clashes between the police and Mr. Morsi’s supporters erupted about 11:30 p.m. Friday. Witnesses said the police were trying to disperse protesters as they approached a central Cairo bridge, using tear gas at first, but then the officers, joined by armed civilians, fired birdshot and ultimately live ammunition to drive the protesters back.
By later Saturday morning the bodies of at least 29 protesters were seen laid out on concrete floors in a makeshift morgue, while there were 20 more dead at a nearby hospital. The Muslim Brotherhood put the death count at 70 people.
“They are not shooting to wound, they are shooting to kill,” said Gehad el-Haddad, a spokesman for the Brotherhood.
The burst of violence came after a vast state-orchestrated display of military power Friday, with army helicopters hovering low over a huge throng of flag-waving, pro-military demonstrators in Tahrir Square and soldiers deploying in armored personnel carriers across the capital.
The crowds had turned out in Cairo and other Egyptian cities in response to a call by the defense minister, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, for mass demonstrations he said would give him a “mandate” to fight terrorism, a phrase widely understood to mean crackdowns on the Brotherhood.
The mass gathering was another blow to the Brotherhood, the Arab world’s most prominent Islamist group, which until recently was the major political force in government, having repeatedly won elections after the country’s uprising two years ago.
The Brotherhood and several Western and Arab diplomats had called for the military, which has held Mr. Morsi incommunicado since his ouster three weeks ago, to release him as a good-will gesture, in hopes of brokering a compromise that would end the standoff between Islamists and the military. That now seems almost impossible, analysts say, with indications that the military is carrying out investigations geared toward a broader legal assault on the Brotherhood.
“This is a preparation for eliminating the Brotherhood,” said Emad Shahin, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo.
The Brotherhood responded defiantly on Friday, with pro-Morsi marches taking place along dozens of planned routes in Cairo and other cities. The group has continued to demand Mr. Morsi’s reinstatement as a precondition for any negotiations and labeled General Sisi’s plea for street demonstrations as a call to “civil war.” Its leaders insist that they are not seeking violence. Their marches, which regularly snarl busy Cairo streets, have become increasingly confrontational, setting the stage for the violent clashes overnight.
“Our blood and souls we will sacrifice for Islam,” some pro-Morsi protesters chanted, while others chanted his name and held posters bearing his face.
In Tahrir Square, by contrast, posters bearing General Sisi’s face bobbed above the crowd, amid a mood of aggressive nationalism that has gripped much of Egypt since the military removed Mr. Morsi. Crowds began gathering early in the day, with protesters hugging the soldiers guarding the entrances to the square and posing for pictures with them. Television networks delayed daytime serials broadcast during the holy month of Ramadan, to encourage people to join the anti-Brotherhood demonstrations.
The two protest camps also clashed on Friday in the port city of Alexandria, where seven people were reported dead and scores were injured.
Well over 100 people have been killed in clashes between supporters and opponents of the Brotherhood in the last month, including a polarizing episode on July 8 in which soldiers and police officers fired on Brotherhood members and killed 62.
Mr. Morsi, whose face regularly appears on large banners in Islamist marches across the country, is being investigated on charges that he conspired with the militant Palestinian group Hamas in a prison escape. The charges appear to relate to his own 2011 escape from Wadi Natroun prison. He is accused of conspiring with Hamas in “hostile acts,” including the kidnapping and killing of police officers and soldiers, according to a report on the Web site of Egypt’s flagship state newspaper, Al Ahram. He was also ordered detained for an additional 15 days, the report said.
The Wadi Natroun accusations, which have been emphasized by his political opponents for some time, gained little traction until after Mr. Morsi was deposed, and they have been dismissed by many human rights advocates as political. Mr. Morsi was arrested in the final days of Mr. Mubarak’s government, and after his release, Mr. Morsi said in a television interview that he was among 30 members of his movement who were broken out of prison by men they did not know.
The announcement of the formal detention and possible charges may also be aimed at providing legal cover in the face of international pressure on the Egyptian authorities to release Mr. Morsi. On Wednesday, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, joined the United States, the European Union and other bodies in expressing concern about Mr. Morsi’s unexplained detention.
In a statement, Salah al-Bardaweel, a spokesman for Hamas, denounced the accusations and challenged Egyptian prosecutors to present evidence that the group had been involved in the prison breaks. “This is an implication of Hamas into a dishonorable political battle,” he said.
Mr. Haddad, the Brotherhood spokesman, said Friday that the threatened charges amounted to a repudiation by the military of the revolt that toppled Mr. Mubarak and “might increase the number of angry people on the ground.”
“It will only help strengthen the realization that the Mubarak state is back,” he said.
At many protests, where thousands of Brotherhood supporters and their Islamist allies have been camped out for weeks, bearded clerics called for an Islamic state while the crowd chanted, “The people demand the return of the president.”
“I think the criminal charges were filed to push the Brotherhood to violence, so the military could then use that as an excuse to crack down,” said Soha Emera, a 43-year-old woman in a pale head scarf, standing near the stage. “But they have stayed peaceful. Look what happened today: it was other people attacking the Brotherhood.”
In Tahrir Square, a stronghold for Mr. Morsi’s opponents for weeks, many in the crowd seemed heartened by news of the formal detention and legal accusations.
“Morsi is nothing but a criminal, and the Egyptian people will be victorious,” said Ibrahim Abdelrahman, a 60-year-old retiree, as he waved an Egyptian flag. “The people, the army, the police: we are all one hand.”
