CAIRO – Egyptian military vehicles fired live rounds at supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi near Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Friday. Thousands of angry protestors marched in the cities across the country demanding the end of military-backed rule.
According to a witness who spoke to Reuters, one Muslim Brotherhood supporter was shot dead in the clashes between government forces and the pro-Morsi demonstrators. Police and military authorities fired tear gas and blocked off entrances to Tahrir Square and other main streets with tanks and barbed wire, diverting traffic from the central plaza.
Support for the Muslim Brotherhood seems to be dwindling still, as bystanders were throwing rocks at the Brotherhood protesters, and many demonstrators returned them as tension built in the streets.
“Down down with the murderer!” protesters chanted, in reference to Defense Minister and Army Chief Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who forced Morsi out of power after millions took to the streets this past summer demanding he step down.
An Associated Press reporter says they saw protesters pushed away by other Egyptians armed with sticks and bottles, who then chased them in the streets before the two sides started lobbing rocks just steps from the Egyptian museum. The museum located at one of the main entrances of Tahrir Square.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned by court order, but members tried to reach the presidential palace before they were turned back by police.
“We will go protest and take all streets possible,” said Mohammed Said, 45, during a march from the Dokki neighborhood to Tahrir. “We will get in Tahrir at any price.”
Islamist supporters organized the march in defiance of military security crackdowns on demonstrations, and the ban on the organization. Egyptian authorities warned the Brotherhood that new demonstrations would not be tolerated, and met with whatever means it takes to quell.
One so-called rally ended at a Defense Ministry building and a second at Rabaa el-Adawiyah mosque in eastern Cairo. Egyptian military troops, backed-up with armored vehicles, increased security in the area of the mosque where protesters chanted slogans against the military.
But late afternoon, protesters had retreated from the area, according to Reuters.
Clashes have broken out in several other Egyptian cities, too, with Egyptian police firing tear gas and gunshots in the air. More fighting occurred on a road leading to the Giza Plateau – home to the world famous pyramids – in the suburb of Giza and in Alexandria and two cities in the Nile Delta.
A Health Ministry spokesman, Khaled el-Khateeb, said that eight people were injured, in total. In the southern province of Assiut, a security official said 44 protesters were arrested in different towns following pro-Morsi demonstrations.
Authorities declared a state of emergency in mid-August after a pro-Morsi protest camp was violently put down and then imposed a strict night curfew in Cairo, as well as several other areas to try to stop the fighting.
Morsi’s Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood chapter is escalating protests to coincide with the start of Egypt’s first strike during the 1973 war with Israel, which takes place on October 6.
The Brotherhood won every election after an uprising deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, but lost favor with the Egyptian people under Morsi’s rule. Morsi was accused of abusing and consolidating his power, reneging on reform promises that would have led to economic opportunity, and establishing the Brotherhood as an unappeasable, dominant political. These are allegations Morsi has vehemently denied.
Since Morsi was ousted last summer, nearly 2,000 Muslim Brotherhood members have been arrested and its top leaders referred to courts with charges of inciting murder, and violence. Morsi, himself, has been detained without access to outside communication, for fear he might rally an even greater social unrest movement.
Earlier in the day, at least two Egyptian soldiers were killed in an attack by suspected militants on an army convoy east of Cairo.
