Egypt PM defends swoop on pro-Morsi camps

Egypt's army-backed interim Prime Minister has defended the deadly operation by security forces to evict supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi from protest camps in which at least 525 people were killed as the crackdown turned into a bloodbath.
Meanwhile, the interior minister announced that forty-three policemen were killed in violence across Egypt on Wednesday, on top of the deaths of  Morsi supporters.
"Eighteen police officers, including two generals and two colonels, 15 policemen, nine conscripts and a civilian employee of the police" were killed, Mohamed Ibrahim told reporters.
In a televised statement on Wednesday, Hazem el-Beblawi said the decision to break up the protests “was not easy” and came only after the government had given mediation efforts a chance.
“We found that matters had reached a point that no self respecting state could accept,” he said, citing what he describes as “the spread of anarchy and attacks on hospitals and police stations”.
Bulldozers were said to have been used to uproot the camps and drive out the protesters who were seeking Morsi's reinstatement after the 62-year-old Islamist was ousted by the military on July 3.
Conflicting reports emerged over the number of people killed on Wednesday as the death toll continued to rise.
The government on Wednesday imposed a month-long emergency after riot police backed by armoured vehicles, bulldozers and helicopters swept away the two encampments of pro-Morsi supporters.
In a press conference, the cabinet media adviser on Wednesday thanked the security forces for “exercising self-control and high-level professionalism in dispersing the sit-ins,” and held the Muslim Brotherhood responsible for “escalation and violence”.