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File picture taken on July 16, 2013 shows Egyptian soldiers praying in the northern Sinai town of Al-Arish/AFP

World

Deadly attack on police as Egypt escalates crackdown

Elsewhere bloodshed sparked by the August 14 security force crackdown on pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo showed little sign of abating.

Authorities said 36 Islamist detainees died after police fired tear gas in a bid to free an officer taken hostage by prisoners, as the inmates were being transferred to a north Cairo jail.

But the Brotherhood, the once banned movement from which Morsi hailed, held the police accountable.

“The murder of 35 detained anti-coup protesters affirms the intentional violence aimed at opponents of the coup, and the cold blooded killing of which they are targets,” it said in a statement in English.

Only hours before the deaths, military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned security forces would confront any violence from protesters.

“We will never be silent in the face of the destruction of the country,” said Sisi, who overthrew Morsi last month after mass protests against the Islamist president’s rule. He pledged a “forceful” response to further attacks on police and government buildings.

According to an AFP tally, more than 1,000 people have been killed since mass demonstrations against Morsi erupted at the end of June.

In response to the violence, EU ambassadors were recalled from their summer break for a meeting in Brussels Monday, with foreign ministers due to review the bloc’s ties with Egypt at an emergency meeting on Wednesday.

The European Union has pledged nearly five billion euros ($6.7 billion) in aid to Egypt but has cautioned this was under “constant review” after Morsi’s ouster.

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The United States has cancelled joint military exercises with Egypt.

It has but stopped short of suspending $1.3 billion in annual aid, although some US lawmakers called Sunday for the funds to be cut.

But the international response has not been uniformly critical. Both Saudi Arabia and Jordan have said they back Egypt in its fight against “terrorism”.

Egypt’s foreign minister Nabil Fahmy said Monday in Sudan that his country was on the “right path”.

Israel, meanwhile, an official urged the West to support Egypt’s military.

“The name of the game right now is not democracy,” he told the Jerusalem Post.

“The name of the game is that there needs to be a functioning state. After you put Egypt back on track, then (you can) talk about restarting the democratic process there.”

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