Death Toll Rises To 3 At ‘100 Days’ Pro-Morsi Protests

A ten-year-old was killed in clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and opponents on Friday, as rallies took off in several Egyptian governorates following afternoon prayers.

Ambulance authority head Ahmed El-Ansary announced that the ten-year-old Samir Ahmed was killed during clashes in Egypt’s Suez due to a bird shot to the head.

El-Ansary also said that 21-year-old Salah Adel died of a gunshot wound to the chest in Cairo.

According to an official from the health ministry, another was killed in clashes in Upper Egypt’s Minya, reported state-run news agency MENA.

Fifteen were injured nationwide.

The Friday protests marked 100 days since the dispersal of two Cairo protest camps demanding the reinstatement of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Thousands marched in a number of Cairo districts, as well as in Alexandria, the Upper Egypt city of Assiut, the Nile Delta cities of Kafr El-Dawwar and Damietta, and the Suez Canal city of Suez, reported Al-Ahram’s Arabic website.

In Cairo, Nasr City was a focal point of clashes. Police fired tear gas outside the United Arab Emirates embassy after protesters provoked embassy guards. Protesters also threw Molotov cocktails at a nearby tram line, setting a carriage on fire.

Clashes between bystanders and protesters were reported in Alexandria, Kafr E-Dawwar and Suez. Security forces were able to separate the clashing parties in Alexandria, Al-Ahram reported, where such Friday confrontations have become a common occurrence.

The Muslim Brotherhood supporters demanded the reinstatement of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, while also condemning the recent security crackdown against Morsi’s supporters.

Ahmed Hegazi, a protester from Alexandria, told Al-Ahram that he was protesting in response to recent events at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, where security forces clashed with students, killing one and injuring tens on Wednesday.

Hegazi said that protests against the army and Egypt’s transitional government – who removed Morsi from power after mass protests against him in July – will increase in the coming period.

Following the arrest of hundreds of top and mid-ranking Muslim Brotherhood members, the frequency and magnitude of pro-Morsi protests has been effectively reduced. Security forces violently dispersed the Muslim Brotherhood’s main sit-ins at Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque and Nahda Square in August, killing hundreds in the process.

The main pro-Morsi coalition, the National Alliance in Support of Legitimacy, called for Friday’s protest to commemorate 100 days since the sit-in clearings, which the group termed a “massacre.”

Crowds chanted against the military and the police, condemning what they describe as a “coup” against a legitimate president.

Source : Ahram

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