CAIRO
The National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy, a coalition of largely Islamist parties and figures supportive of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, said at least 213 people were killed in attacks on a number of rallies staged by anti-coup demonstrators in several Egyptian cities on Friday.
"The field statistics show that 213 people were gunned down by the June 3 coup forces during peaceful demonstrations," the alliance said in a statement in the early hours of Saturday, a copy of which was obtained by the Anadolu Agency.
"The coup leaders used military helicopters to fire live ammunition at peaceful protesters in Cairo's Ramses Square and in Giza," it charged.
"Army tanks fired at protesters in Alexandria, making army chief Gen Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and his lieutenants the first to use Egyptian army forces and its heavy weaponry against the Egyptian people," said the statement.
"This is a crime against humanity and those who perpetrated it would not escape justice."
At least 181 people were killed and hundreds were injured in Friday's violence, according to a tally compiled by the Anadolu Agency.
The Health Ministry, however, has put the death toll at only 17.
Morsi supporters staged a wave of mass rallies in several Egyptian cities Friday to protest Wednesday's violent dispersal of the two main anti-coup sit-ins in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square and Giza's Nahda Square.
The Health Ministry says at least 638 people have been killed in nationwide violence since Wednesday, including 288 in Rabaa al-Adawiya and 87 in Nahda.
However, the pro-Morsi Alliance has put the number of deaths from the Rabaa sit-in alone at some 2,600.
