美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-08-17

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This is new video of Egyptian security forces raiding one of two opposition camps there. They moved in this morning accompanied by tear gas and live ammunition². You can hear shooting in the background as troops kick a wounded man around. Said a protester who escaped one of the two camps, it's an open war. 

 

 

 

The raids touching³ off running battles, new video as well of Muslim Brotherhood⁴ fighters pushing an armored personnel carrier off the 6th of October Bridge. You will remember the bridge as one of rallying points leading into Tahrir Square during the 2011 uprising. Unlike then, the images coming in, the images you are seeing now reflect precious little inspiration, but plenty of desperation. 

 

 

 

Muslim Brotherhood supporters have been living in these camps for the last month-and-a-half, ever since the military ousted⁵ Egypt's elected president, Mohammed Morsi, their frustration⁶ building. The ruling military junta⁷ making it clear for weeks now they wanted them out. So when the clearing of the camps started this morning, it came as no surprise. But it did mean danger for anyone close by. 

 

 

 

For the Muslim Brotherhood, it is very much an existential battle for some of those hard-core supporters. We will see them out there continuously determined⁸. But then at the same time, you have ... 

 

 

 

It takes Secretary of State Kerry today calling the events deplorable. Egyptian Vice⁹ President of Foreign Affairs and former top diplomat¹⁰ Mohamed El Baradei has turned in his resignation. The Obama administration now considering calling off next month's big military exercises with Egypt, with questions growing about the president's handling not just of this chapter, but the entire saga¹¹ in Egypt.

 

 

 

Arwa Damon, who you saw just a moment ago with guns going off around her, she joins us tonight. Arwa, it's the middle of the night there, obviously comparatively quiet to earlier today. What have you seen and heard? 

 

 

 

Well, curfew is full on in effect. It's quite odd how eerily¹² quiet the streets have been tonight, especially compared to everything that we saw during the day. 

 

 

 

The Egyptian security forces not just having to deal with clearing the Morsi supporters from those two main sit-in sites, but really multiple front lines at the same time. We saw Morsi supporters trying to gather, break through the riot police's ranks. We also saw them actually taking over another square in Cairo, where they were as of tonight as well when we returned back to that location, digging in there, setting up these makeshift barricades¹³ once again, field hospitals, readying themselves for even more clashes. 

 

 

 

The other issue here too, Anderson, is that the fighting that we're seeing taking place, the violence, it's not just clashes that are breaking out between those who support and oppose President Morsi and the security forces. You're also seeing clashes between Morsi supporters and residents in various neighborhoods where these sit-ins, the marches are taking place. 

 

 

 

Additionally to all of this, neighborhood watch, young men in various neighborhoods taking batons¹⁴, bats, setting up checkpoints, searching vehicles. It's a very unpredictable situation right now. 

 

 

 

Yeah, Arwa, stay there. I want to bring in our Ivan Watson, who is in fact, happens to be here in New York.

 

 

 

You have obviously spent a lot of time, Ivan, in the Egypt over the last couple of years and you have seen a lot of this firsthand. Where does this go from here? Because the Muslim Brotherhood is not going away. The Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed¹⁵ for decades and remained. Obviously it's on its heels right now but they're not going away. 

 

 

 

That is what is so frightening here. What does the military want the endgame to be? Do they expect the Islamists in Egypt will just simply disappear? If this was such a tenacious¹⁶ organization that survived torture and imprisonment¹⁷ in previous decades, they're not going to disappear. The experiment of democracy in Egypt that we kind of saw the beginnings of in 2011, I think it's very clear when you see this carnage and this death toll¹⁸ that it's over. 

 

 

 

The fear is in the Sinai right now of Egypt, on the border with Israel. There are Jihadis, there are believed to be al Qaeda-linked groups that are waging open insurgency¹⁹ against Egyptian security forces. There have been more deaths there in the last couple of days and could that spread now? You have closed the door to the democratic process to the preeminent²⁰ Islamist political force in Egypt. 

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