The Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement claiming its leaders who were killed in a Cairo apartment on Wednesday were murdered in "in cold blood," calling for a rebellion against President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who it calls a "butcher."
The group "holds the criminal Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and his gang fully responsible for these crimes and their consequences," it writes.
The Interior Ministry says the nine people killed in a raid on a Cairo apartment were fugitive Muslim Brotherhood leaders who had been meeting to plan terrorist plots.
It says the group included two people who had previously been sentenced to death.
A statement from the ministry late Wednesday said that in addition to weapons, investigators found 43,000 Egyptian pounds ($5,630) along with documents and memory cards. The ministry said the group was planning attacks on the army, police, judiciary and media. Materials seized in the raid would be used in the investigation of the assassination of chief prosecutor Hisham Barakat, who was killed Monday.
The ministry said three members of the special forces team involved in the raid were wounded in the operation.
It also published images of the apartment after the raid, showing bloodied bodies on the floor with several Kalashnikov assault rifles nearby.
The Brotherhood, however, said the men were from a committee that supports the families of the group's detainees and "martyrs," and were "rounded up inside the house and then were murdered in cold blood without any investigations or indictments."
BREAKING: Egyptian police assassinates 9 Muslim Brotherhood leaders during a meeting to discuss support to families of pol detainees/martyrs— Ikhwanweb (@Ikhwanweb) July 1, 2015
Among the dead were Abdel-Fattah Mohamed Ibrahim, who was head of the committee on support to the families of prisoners, and Nasser Al-Hafi, an Egyptian lawyer and former member of the country's parliament.
Among MBs killed today in cold blood by fascist Egyptian police, prominent attorney Nasser Al Hafee, head of the committee for legal affairs— Ikhwanweb (@Ikhwanweb) July 1, 2015
"To the proud people of Egypt," the group wrote in its statement, "This unjust tyrant has done his worst. Rise in revolt to defend your homeland, your lives and your children."
"Oust the heinous murderer," it added. "Destroy the castles of injustice and tyranny. Reclaim Egypt once again."