Nearly 40 rioting prisoners holding a police officer hostage were suffocated by tear gas by Egyptian security forces yesterday, officials said.
Authorities said at least some of those killed were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the chief political support group of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
The prisoners were part of a convoy carrying nearly 600 accused criminals when they began rioting and took the officer hostage, officials said. Authorities fired tear gas into their truck in a bid to free the badly beaten policeman, they said. It’s unclear if the officer survived.
Egyptian state media said the prisoners were trying to escape when they grabbed the hostage and were killed.
The latest violence erupted after Egypt’s military leader made his first public comments since soldiers killed hundreds of anti-military protesters in Cairo last week.
Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi urged Morsi’s supporters to help “rebuild the democratic path” and “integrate in the political process.”
Still, security forces clamped down on gatherings of Muslim Brotherhood members in a bid to halt more rallies planned in support of Morsi.
But the pro-Morsi Anti-Coup Alliance vowed to go ahead with their protests in Cairo, despite the threat of military “snipers” along the route.
The saga ignited a fresh round of sniping on Capitol Hill, where Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) blasted President Obama for leaving the United States with “no credibility” in the Middle East.
“There is no policy and there is no strategy, and therefore we react and we react poorly,” McCain told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
McCain called for cutting off $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Egypt, reversing his previous position after the military government killed more than 800 people.
“For us to sit by and watch this happen is a violation of everything that we stood for,” he said. “There are many areas where we could exercise influence over the generals, and we’re not doing any of it, and we’re not sticking with our values.”
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, said he supports following a US law that prohibits military aid after a coup.
“I would cut off aid but engage in intense diplomacy in Egypt and in the region to try to say, ‘Look, we will restore aid when you stop the bloodshed in the street and set up a path towards democracy that you were on before,’ ” Ellison said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Obama interrupted his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard last week to give a speech condemning the crackdown in Egypt. But he stopped short of threatening to end the aid.