Egypt’s Police Intervene In Pro-Morsi Protests
Egypt’s police fired tear gas at a march by loyalists of deposed president Mohamed Morsi on Friday afternoon in Suez, after clashes broke out between the two.
According to Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website, protesters threw stones at security forces before the march was completely dispersed.
Security forces also intervened earlier Friday to end clashes between Morsi-supporters and residents in the coastal city of Alexandria.
In Gharbyia, residents of the Nile delta governorate provoked by anti-military chants clashed with protesters until police intervened. According to Al-Ahram, eyewitnesses claimed six were injured and five arrested.
Meanwhile in Cairo, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood marched to Al-Qobba presidential palace in Heliopolis amid an absence of security, reported state-owned news agency MENA.
In the upscale district of Maadi, hundreds of Morsi loyalists marched down the Corniche chanting against the military and holding posters of the popular four-finger Rabaa sign.
According to MENA, both police and army forces were deployed in front of the High Constitutional Court and the Military hospital, where deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak and ex- Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mahdi Akef are currently staying.
The pro-Morsi National Coalition in Support of Legitimacy announced a week of protests on Friday dubbed the ‘Suez resilience, our way to Jerusalem.’ The protests are being staged in condemnation of the military, who Morsi supporters accuse of carrying out a “coup” against an elected president.
The title of Friday’s protests takes inspiration from popular resistance to the Israeli occupation of Suez in 1973, according to a statement by the Brotherhood-led National Coalition in Support of Legitimacy.
As had been the case during several previous Fridays, security forces have closed down main squares across the city out of fear the Brotherhood will start sit-ins to push their demands.
Cairo’s famous Tahrir Square was closed, as well as the Mostafa Mahmoud and Sphinx Squares in Mohandesseen, and Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square in Nasr City – where the main pro-Morsi sit-in was violently dispersed last August, leaving hundreds dead.
Source : Ahram
