Egypt's Toll: 297 Dead, Plenty More Tortured

At least 297 people have been killed in Egypt’s uprising, and that estimate is expected to rise significantly in the days ahead, Human Rights Watch announced yesterday, after touring Egypt’s hospitals and morgues. The lion’s share of those deaths—232—occurred in Cairo, the Huffington Post reports, with smaller tolls in Alexandria and Suez. The rights group also estimates that at least 1,400 people were jailed in the early days of the protests, and another 87 in politically-motivated arrests last week.

Many of those prisoners tell tales of abuse and torture, the LA Times reports, speaking to one man who says he was burned with cigarettes and hot oil and beaten with a rubber hose. “The government is clearly putting pressure on the protesters and demonstration leaders through short-term detentions,” says Human Rights Watch’s emergency director. “The fear is that repression will increase as the dialogue between protesters and the army becomes more difficult.” (More Egypt stories.)