Clashes overnight between police and supporters of Egypt's deposed
president left at least seven people dead, authorities said Tuesday, in
the latest eruption of political violence on the country's streets since
the military toppled Mohammed Morsi nearly two weeks ago.
The
bloodshed, which comes a week after army troops and police killed more
than 50 Morsi supporters, made clear the determination of the ousted
Islamist leader's camp to resist the new political order and to maintain
pressure on the military and the interim administration to offer
concessions.
Khaled el-Khateeb, the head of the Health Ministry's
emergency and intensive care department, said another 261 people were
injured in the clashes that broke out late Monday and carried on into
the early morning hours of Tuesday in four different locations in Cairo.
Egypt's
state news agency said 17 policemen were injured in the violence, and
401 people have been arrested in relation to the clashes.
There
was no official word on how the seven people died, but security
officials said four of them were killed in clashes between Morsi
supporters staging a sit-in near the main Cairo University campus and
residents of the area. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to brief the media.
The
violence erupted after sunset during mass protests by Morsi supporters
demanding the ousted leader be reinstated. The protest turned violent as
police fired volleys of tear gas at the protesters, who burned tires,
threw rocks and blocked traffic flow on a main roadway running through
the heart of the capital.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which Morsi hails, said police used birdshot and live ammunition.
The
ousted president's supporters reject what they call a military coup
that overthrew the nation's first democratically elected leader.
Thousands of them have been staging sit-ins in two different locations
in Cairo, one outside the main campus of Cairo University and another
outside a mosque in a neighborhood in eastern Cairo that is a
Brotherhood stronghold.
The army stepped in to remove Morsi after
days of mass protests calling for the Islamist leader's removal on the
grounds that he had failed to solve any of the country's pressing
problems, including crumbling security and an ailing economy. His
opponents also accused him of concentrating too much power in his own
hands.
Morsi and the Brotherhood insist that loyalists of the
deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in Egypt's 2011
uprising, worked incessantly to undermine Morsi's rule and that a wave
of protests and strikes to hamper badly needed reforms.
In
the wake of the coup, the new military-backed administration has moved
swiftly against the Brotherhood, detaining several senior leaders over
accusations that included inciting violence and killing protesters.
Authorities have issued arrest warrants for the group's leader, Mohammed
Badie, and at least 13 other prominent Islamists.
The overnight
violence broke out hours after the most senior U.S. official to visit
Egypt since Morsi's ouster concluded a round of talks with the country's
interim leaders in which he called for the participation of the
Brotherhood in the political process.
Deputy Secretary of State
William Burn said Washington was committed to helping Egypt succeed in
its "second chance" at democracy, a comment that signaled that
Washington, while calling for an inclusive transition, was moving on
from Morsi and his Brotherhood.
Burns insisted that the United
States is not taking sides in deeply polarized Egypt, saying it is not
Washington's policy, "as outsiders, to support particular political
personalities and particular parties."
"What we're going to
continue to try to do is to support an open inclusive, tolerant
democratic process," he said. "We hope it will be a chance to learn some
of the lessons and correct some of the mistakes of the last two years."
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