Nine people were killed in Cairo yesterday in clashes between opponents and Islamist supporters of Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi, state-run media reported, keeping the most populous Arab nation in turmoil.
The violence broke out before dawn near a Brotherhood protest at Cairo University, where Morsi supporters have been camped out since the army removed the Islamist president from power on July 3rd following protests against his rule.
The Brotherhood described it as an attack on peaceful protesters. Police sources said hundreds of Morsi supporters clashed with residents, street vendors and others near the sit-in. They said gunshots were fired and stones were thrown.
With the Brotherhood vowing to stay on the streets, the bloodshed was a fresh example of the instability facing Egypt as the newly installed interim government moves along an army-backed roadmap towards elections in about six months.
“The longer this standoff continues, the more hardened the positions become, and the more likelihood there is for violence and oppression,” said Yasser el-Shimy, Egypt analyst with the International Crisis Group. “It needs an urgent political deal or compromise and unfortunately we are not seeing any signs of that.”
The state-run Al-Ahram newspaper quoted a health ministry official as saying nine people had been killed and 33 wounded in the Cairo University clashes, while two wounded in fighting on Monday had died, bringing to 14 the number of deaths in violence between rival protesters in Egypt in the last two days.
At least 15 burned-out cars lay abandoned around the Cairo University area. Splattered blood and broken glass disfigured the pavements near the shopping area where a traffic police station was set on fire.
About 100 people have died in violence since the army deposed Mr Morsi and replaced him with an interim administration led by Adli Mansour, head of the constitutional court. The Brotherhood accuses the army of orchestrating a coup.
It said on its website that seven “martyrs” had been killed overnight in two attacks on Morsi supporters, one at Cairo University and another during a march near a bigger round-the-clock sit-in in the north of the city.
The Brotherhood vows to keep up its vigil until Mr Morsi, held in an unknown location since the army ended his year in power as Egypt’s first freely elected president, is reinstated.
Sue the army
Mr Morsi's family said on Monday it would sue the army for holding him without charge. The United States, which gives Egypt $1.3 billion a year in military aid, has called for Mr Morsi's release and an end to "all politicised arrests and detentions".
The National Salvation Front, an alliance of liberal and leftist parties that supported the ousting of Mr Morsi, condemned what it described as attacks by Brotherhood supporters on protesters over the last three weeks.
In separate overnight clashes, a civilian and a policeman were killed in the lawless North Sinai region, near Egypt’s borders with Israel and the Palestinian Gaza strip, where hardline Islamists have stepped up attacks on security forces. – (Reuters)