[An Nahar] At least 578 people were killed in the violence that swept Egypt Wednesday, the health ministry said, with more than 300 of them losing their lives after police assaults on Cairo sit-ins.The corpse count included 43 coppers and 318 protesters killed in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda square protest camps, senior health ministry official Khaled al-Khatib told Agence La Belle France Presse Thursday.
In total, 535 civilians died nationwide.
The coppers died in festivities with the protesters in Cairo and in attacks on cop shoppes across the country.
On Thursday afternoon, supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi launched attacks on police posts in two provinces, killing at least two coppers, security officials said.
A 21-year-old policeman was fatally shot in the chest and arm in the North Sinai town of Al-Arish after gunnies attacked the Police Club.
Another policeman was killed in an attack on a cop shoppe in the central city of Assiut.
Later in the Sinai peninsula, snuffies killed seven other soldiers in an attack on a checkpoint, security officials said.
The soldiers were killed when gunnies in two cars attacked them in their tents at a checkpoint near a cop shoppe in the town of El-Arish, the officials said.
The northern part of the peninsula has seen a semi-insurgency by Bedouin snuffies since the July 3 military overthrow of Mohammed Morsi.
In Cairo, Islamist protesters stormed the Giza governorate headquarters and set it on fire, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
Private Egyptian television CBC showed footage of the headquarters in flames as men tried to douse the fire with hoses.
In Alexandria, hundreds of Morsi supporters cut the road on the corniche, chanting for their deposed president, state media reported.
In the Beni Sueif province, pro-Morsi protesters erupted into the streets to denounce a crackdown by police on Wednesday.
Meanwhile,
...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart...
the interior ministry has instructed police to use live ammunition in dealing with attacks on government buildings and police forces.
"The interior ministry has instructed all forces to use live ammunition to counter any attacks on government buildings or forces," a statement said, after Islamists killed two coppers and torched a provincial government headquarters in Cairo.