Celebration turns to Bloodshed

            Along with the celebration of the third anniversary of the uprising of the autocratic government in Egypt came bloodshed. In Cairo thousands of Egyptians celebrated and showed support for the military leader who ousted their first democratically elected leader. However, in other parts of the country there were rallies held to show the peoples opposition of this new government.  These anti government rallies quickly escalated and forced intervention from the police. By Sunday morning at least 49 people were dead in the Cairo area after violent interaction with. According to this article from the New York Times the opposition rallies consisted mostly of Islamists and left- leaning activists. One group holding rallies, The Way of the Revolution Front a group opposed to the Islamists as well as the military takeover, told their supports to get out of the streets because of “the excessive force that police are using against whoever tries to express their opinion.” Along with the deaths over 1,000 people were arrested throughout the country with roughly 430 being arrested in the greater Cairo area.

            Around the same time of the protests in the Cairo area a car bomb went off in the city of Suez wounding four police officers only a day after a bomb went off in the capital killing 6 people and another 8 were killed by the police. An Islamic group the Brotherhood was blamed for the bombs however Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, another Islamic militant group, claimed responsibility for them on jihadi websites. It will be interesting to see how the elections play out and how the Egyptian people will react to the news of their next president.