CAIRO – The Muslim Brotherhood pledged to bring down Egypt’s military-backed interim government Thursday, deepening the country’s political crisis as the 
official death toll from clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi climbed to 525.
“We will rise and rise again until we push the military back into the barracks and restore democracy,” Gehad El-Haddad, spokesman for the Islamist organization, said on his Twitter feed.
“We will not bow down, we will not cower,” said El-Haddad, adding that the security forces had shown “unbelievable brutality”.
The Muslim Brotherhood also announced plans to hold a march Thursday in Cairo. Hundreds of its members went on the march in Alexandria.
As clashes became more violent between Egyptian troops and pro-Morsi protesters, injured were treated inside the Rabaa al-Adwiya Mosque in Cairo. Some images may be disturbing to viewers.
El-Haddad’s call to arms followed a bloody day of unrest in Egypt, after security forces – backed by bulldozers – cleared two Cairo sit-in camps protesting the military’s removal of the country’s democratically elected leader. The health ministry announced Thursday that the death toll from subsequent clashes reached 525, with 3,572 others injured. Activists said the true death toll was much higher.
The violent clearance of the camps triggered a backlash around Egypt, prompting the interim government to declare a month-long state of emergency and impose a night-time curfew.
Secretary of State John Kerry described the situation as “deplorable.” The unrest also sparked the resignation of Nobel Peace Prize winner and interim government minister Mohamed ElBaradei.
In a troubling indication of the increasingly sectarian nature of Egypt’s divisions, Reuters cited state media and security sources as saying that a number of churches had been attacked across Egypt.
Churches were attacked in the Nile Valley towns of Minya, Sohag and Assiut, where Christians escaped across the roof into a neighboring building after a mob surrounded and hurled bricks at their place of worship, state news agency MENA said.
Authorities referred 84 people from the city of Suez, including Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters, to military prosecutors on Thursday on charges of murder and burning churches, the state news agency reported.
As Egypt awoke to the first full day of its month-long state of emergency, Cairo appeared calm and traffic flowed through the former site of the Rabaa camp, according to Reuters. The overnight curfew stemmed most of the violence, with usually-crowded streets deserted.