CAIRO — A divided Egypt braced for more violence Friday, with the Muslim Brotherhood calling on its followers to observe a “Friday of Rage” and a pro-military organization telling its supporters to take to the streets to “defend their country.”
The Brotherhood, an influential Islamist organization that backs ousted president Mohamed Morsi, issued the call in defiance of Egypt’s military-backed interim government, which authorized security forces Thursday to fire live ammunition against opponents.
The authorization underscored the six-week-old government’s determination to crush any lingering challenge posed by Morsi supporters following a bloody crackdown on their camps.
In response to the Brotherhood’s call, protesters poured out of mosques after Friday prayers, the Associated Press reported.
Heavy gunfire was later reported around the 15th of May Bridge connecting the upscale Zamalek district on a Nile River island to downtown Cairo, where thousands of Morsi supporters gathered.
A coalition of liberals and secular Egyptians who support the military’s removal of Morsi, the National Salvation Front, urged Egyptians to protest what it called the Brotherhood’s “obvious terrorism actions.”
A day after Egyptian soldiers and police killed hundreds of people in an assault on two Muslim Brotherhood protest camps set up to call for Morsi’s reinstatement, the government pledged to use “all power” to confront the organization, creating the potential for further bloodshed.
With supporters of Morsi and of the military urging their followers to take to the streets again Friday, there seemed little prospect of an end anytime soon to the crisis that has paralyzed Egypt since June 30. That is when millions of protesters demanded the overthrow of their first democratically elected leader, prompting the military to detain Morsi and appoint a replacement.
There was further international fallout Thursday from the crackdown on the Brotherhood camps on the outskirts of Cairo, with President Obama announcing the cancellation of joint military exercises next month with Egypt. The U.N. Security Council, which met in an emergency session Thursday evening, issued a statement that urged an end to violence in Egypt and expressed sympathy “to the victims” but stopped short of blaming the government for the crackdown. Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Egypt to protest the shootings.
The nationwide civilian death toll rose Thursday to 578, according to Health Ministry spokesman Hamdi Abdo Wahid — 318 of them in Cairo and 260 in other parts of Egypt.
The largest single number of deaths — 288 — occurred in the vicinity of the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, which had become the epicenter of the protest movement. The mosque had housed most of the top Brotherhood leaders and members of Morsi’s government who escaped an initial dragnet when Morsi was toppled.
The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that 42 members of the security forces also were killed in the clashes.
In addition, 4,201 people were injured, and the death toll yet could rise from what is already the bloodiest single day since Egyptians rose up against the three-
decade-long presidency of Hosni Mubarak in January 2011.
The Washington Post
