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Egypt Military Calls for Speedy Probe into Deadly Clashes

Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Monday convened crisis talks and tasked the government with forming a fact finding team to probe clashes that left 24 people dead in Cairo.

The council (SCAF) "tasked the government with quickly forming a fact finding committee to determine what happened and take legal measures against all those proven to have been involved, either directly or by incitement," it said in a statement read on state television.

SCAF held the emergency talks a day after clashes in Cairo left 24 people dead, mostly Coptic Christians, and more than 300 injured, the official MENA news agency reported.

The council, which took power when president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, stressed it "continues to bear national responsibility to protect the people after the January 25 revolution... until it hands power to an elected civilian authority."

It blamed the clashes on "efforts by some to destroy the pillars of the state and sow chaos" and said it would "take the necessary measures to restore the security situation."

Source: Agence France Presse


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