The Slatest

Yesterday Was Egypt’s Deadliest Day Since Its 2011 Uprising

An Egyptian woman mourns over the body of her daughter wrapped in a shroud at a mosque in Cairo on August 15, 2013, following a crackdown on the protest camps of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi the previous day

Photo by Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

The death toll in Egypt from yesterday’s day-long clashes between the government and pro-Morsi supporters has been revised to 525, with more than 3,700 others injured across the country, according to the Egyptian Health Ministry. According to BBC News, the real total is likely a good deal higher “as scores of bodies are not [yet] registered.” Supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi say that the true total of deaths is closer to 2,000. (They have exaggerated such figures in the past, although it’s much harder to discredit this estimate given the official death toll’s slow and steady march into the hundreds.)

Even if the official total climbs no higher than 525, that figure already makes yesterday the deadliest day in the country since the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

The prospect of additional violence—and death—looms in Cairo and elsewhere Thursday. The Washington Post reports that Morsi supporters are calling for massive demonstrations later today, ones that would likely defy the curfew put in place as part of the month-long state of emergency the government declared yesterday as violence raged in the streets.

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