CNN this morning posted to the top of its international online front page a report highlighting incidents in Alexandria, Egypt during which pro-Morsi Muslim Brotherhood forces attacked and then threw their teenage victims from building rooftops. The grisly footage is embedded below.

CNN contextualized the video on its site with a caption suggesting that the atrocities risked shedding “an unflattering light on Egypt’s jihadists.”

Also threatening to cast Egyptian jihadists in an unflattering light is a video released on Monday reportedly showing Islamist gunmen mixing with demonstrators demanding the release of Muslim Brotherhood-linked former President Mohammed Morsi and then firing at army troops:

Footage released by the army shows a number of masked and armed men attacking army and police personnel. The army and the Muslim Brotherhood traded blames over responsibility for the killing, which left at least 51 people dead.

Muslim Brotherhood officials subsequently tried to blame the incident, which took place outside Cairo’s Republican Guard headquarters over the weekend and left dozens dead, on the army. The accusations are in tension with explicit reports from the scene – including those offered by Brotherhood-linked witnesses – to the effect that the live fire did not come from the army, and that “thugs” in civilian clothes had carried out the shootings.

The army subsequently moved against Brotherhood figures it accused of being linked to the violence, arresting several top Brotherhood officials including Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie. An article yesterday in the influential Al Arabiya declared that the Brotherhood may be regressing in the aftermath of its failure to govern:

Egypt’s oldest and largest Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, is seen falling back to violence after its failure to lead the country in the post-January 25 revolution… The Islamic Group and the Islamic Jihad were responsible for a wave of violence witnessed by Egypt in the nineties of the last century, which included attacks against foreign tourists. Observers fear that history might repeat itself and drive the Muslim Brotherhood and those who support it from forces of the Islamist political trend outside the political process.

[Photo: edition.cnn.com]