36 dead in Egypt clashes as troops deployed to stem violence

Cairo: The death toll from a day of street battles across Egypt mounted to 36 as troops deployed in flashpoints, anticipating new violence between opponents of deposed President Mohammed Morsi and his Islamist backers.

add_main_imageThe country’s interim president, installed by the military, met on Saturday with defence minister General Abdelfatah al-Seesi and interior minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who oversees the police force, following the overnight clashes, AP reported. More than 1,000 people were wounded in the fighting, Mohammad Sultan, deputy head of Egypt’s ambulance authority, said in an emailed statement.

Skirmishes broke out in the Cairo area, Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast and the Sinai peninsula. Egyptian troops in armoured vehicles were stationed on Saturday in Cairo squares where pro-and anti-Morsi forces had gathered and blocked access to some bridges over the Nile. Security forces ON fRIDAY expanded their roundup of top figures from the Muslim Brotherhood that had fielded Morsi for office.NextMAds

The military forced Morsi out on 3 July after hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets for four days. Critics accused Morsi, who had taken office a year earlier, of betraying the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011, by grabbing power for his Islamist backers and ignoring the nation’s economic plight and political rifts.

Chamber dissolved

The military installed Adly Mansour, the newly appointed chief justice of the constitutional court, to guide the country until new elections are held at an unspecified date. One of his first acts was to order the dissolution of parliament’s only functioning chamber on Friday, the Islamist-dominated upper house, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported.

The turmoil and uncertain course that Egypt is on has further hurt investor confidence in the country. On Friday, Fitch Ratings downgraded Egypt’s long-term credit rating to B-, six levels below investment grade, from B with a negative outlook. The company cited high uncertainty over how the risks resulting from the military coup evolve over the short term and the eventual pathway to a peaceful political transition.

Egypt’s economy is in worse shape than it was during Mubarark’s last days in office, with growth near its weakest in two decades and unemployment at a record 13.2%. A bid for a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan has yet to be accepted, and the country has been relying on aid, primarily from Qatar.

Takeover challengedsixthMAds

Morsi’s supporters, who had seen the power of their once-repressed movements flourish under the Islamist leader, urged the Egyptian people to consider the direction their country was taking. They rejected the opposition’s argument that Morsi’s conduct stripped the democratically elected leader of the right to continue governing. At a rally on Friday, the Muslim Brotherhood’s top official, Mohammed Badie, repeatedly chanted, “Our president is Mohammed Morsi”.

“With our bare chests, we’re stronger than bullets,” Badie told a flag-waving crowd in Cairo’s Nasr City neighbourhood, as military helicopters flew overhead. “People of Egypt: You’re at a critical moment in your revolution. Are you with the military coup?”

More arrests

On Friday, security forces arrested Khairat el-Shater, a senior Muslim Brotherhood official, former Brotherhood lawmaker Mohammed al-Umda, and Abdel Monem Abdel Maqsoud, the group’s attorney. An Egyptian court ordered the last two held for 15 days and released on bail Saad El-Katatni, leader of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, and Rashad Bayyoumi, another top Brotherhood official.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed to a 14-month high on Friday, in part on concern the tumult in Egypt would escalate. Futures rose as much as 2.4% in New York to $103.68 a barrel, the highest since 3 May 2012. Traffic was undisrupted on Saturday through the Suez Canal, with 55 ships passing through, said a spokesman for the canal authority, Tarek Hassanin. The canal handles almost 5% of global trade in oil and is protected by the military and police.

Officials in world capitals looked on with concern at the developments roiling the Middle East’s most populous nation. “We call on all Egyptian leaders to condemn the use of force and to prevent further violence among their supporters,” US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement on Friday. “The Egyptian people must come together to resolve their differences peacefully, without recourse to violence or the use of force.”

Heavy Alexandria fighting

Fighting on Friday was heavy in Alexandria, Cairo’s second- largest city, where at least a dozen people were killed and hundreds injured, MENA reported.

Television footage showed troops moving in to disperse clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi forces in the capital, and pro-Morsi demonstrators at one Cairo confrontation accused security forces of firing on them.

Masaad Abu El Ela, a 38-year-old mechanical engineer, said two shotgun pellets fired by a military police officer had struck his leg during a clash outside Republican Guard headquarters. State-run Al-Ahram newspaper had reported earlier in the week that Morsi had been taken there, but would be moved to another, undisclosed location.

Morsi whereabouts unknown

“The Republican Guards are responsible for Morsi, and we want to know where he is,” Abu El Ela said after being treated in a Nasr City hospital. Military spokesman Ahmed Mohamed Ali said Friday night the military was investigating the clash.

In other violence, hundreds of pro-Morsi supporters stormed the Luxor governor’s office and tried to storm the North Sinai governor’s office, MENA reported.

Opponents of the ousted president gathered on Friday in Tahrir Square, the centre of both the protests that dislodged Morsi and the uprising that toppled Mubarak. As they congregated, thousands of Morsi supporters marched across a bridge over the Nile toward the nearby state television building. Television footage showed groups from both camps hurling stones at each other in central Cairo, and troops and military vehicles being deployed.

“The army has given instructions to soldiers to only use tear gas and fire warning shots in the air,” said Ali, the military spokesman. “We hope the violence is contained. The army will continue ensuring the safety of protesters, without siding with any party.”

Mass protests

The military intervened in the political conflict after growing anti-Morsi sentiment swelled into mass protests last week, giving him 48 hours to satisfy protesters’ demands. Morsi defied the protesters’ calls for his resignation, and the military was not satisfied by his attempt to stave off his removal by proposing a power-sharing agreement with his opponents. Backed by opposition leaders and some religious figures, al-Seesi announced on 3 July that Morsi had failed to meet and conform with the demands of the people.

“You’re going to have a bumpy ride because the army acted with a lot of popular support, but the Brotherhood still probably enjoys the support of between 10 million and 20 million Egyptians in a country of nearly 85 million,” said Jon Alterman, a former US state department official for Middle East affairs, in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s Political Capital With Al Hunt, airing this weekend. Bloomberg

Mariam Fam, Tarek El-Tablawy, Ola Galal and Nadine Marroushi in Cairo, Donna Abu-Nasr in Dubai, Zaid Sabah Abd Alhamid in Washington and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this story.