Egypt Street Clashes Kill At Least 51
Local Editor
Security forces and Brotherhood protesters clashed around Egypt Sunday, leaving 51 killed, as a national holiday celebrating the October battle turned to mayhem.
Crowds from Egypt's two rival camps - supporters of the ousted president, Mohammed Mursi, and backers of the military that deposed him - poured into the streets and turned on each other.
Several neighborhoods of the capital, Cairo, resembled combat zones after street battles that raged for hours. Mursi supporters fired birdshot and threw firebombs at police who responded with gunshots and tear gas. Streets were left strewn with debris, and the air was thick with tear gas and smoke from burning fires, as the crack of gunfire rang out.
An Associated Press photographer saw nine bodies lying on the floor of a clinic in the Cairo district of Dokki, scene of some of the heaviest clashes. Most of the bodies had gunshot wounds to the head or chest.
Sunday's death toll of 51 was the highest on a single day since Aug. 14 when security forces raided two sit-in protest camps by Mursi supporters, killing hundreds.
Even as fighting continued in the streets, the military went ahead with celebrations for the holiday marking the 40th anniversary of the 1973 Mideast war with "Israel".
In the evening, a concert was aired live on state TV from a military-run Cairo stadium. Military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, other top brass and interim President Adly Mansour attended the show.
"There are those who think the military can be broken," al-Sissi said in an address at the concert. "You see the Pyramids? The military is like the pyramids, because the Egyptian people are on its side."
The clashes were the latest chapter in the turmoil roiling the country since the ouster in February 2011 of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The new violence is certain to set back efforts by the interim, military-backed government to revive the economy, especially the vital tourism sector, and bring order to the streets of Cairo, where crime and lawlessness have been rife.
Mursi was Egypt's first civilian and first freely elected president, succeeding four since the early 1950s who hailed from a military background. But after a year in office, Mursi was faced by massive protests demanding his ouster, accusing his Muslim Brotherhood of taking over power - and on July 3, he was toppled.
The military is now back as the real source of power in Egypt, and state and independent media have been depicting it as the country's savior - with growing calls for al-Sissi to run in the presidential election due early next year.
Thousands of the Brotherhood backers held marches in various parts of Cairo, while at the same time crowds in support of the military took to the streets. In some cases, the two sides set upon each other, pelting each other with rocks and firebombs.
The Health Ministry reported 51 people killed, with at least 40 of them in Cairo, and more than 240 injured. The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the police, said 423 Mursi supporters were detained across the nation.
"It is now crystal clear that the coup is a nightmare for Egypt and its people and is trying so hard to tear the fabric of this nation," a coalition grouping the Brotherhood and its allies said in a statement.
"At the time when festivities are arranged for one section of the population, they call on Egyptians to dance on the dead bodies of their compatriots who oppose the coup," it said, calling for a rally in Tahrir Square on Friday.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
