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Egyptian Protests Explode Into Violence Egyptian Protests Explode Into Violence
(about 2 hours later)
CAIRO — Islamist supporters of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s newly ousted president, held enormous and defiant protests across Cairo and elsewhere on Friday demanding his reinstatement and engaging in sometimes deadly clashes with security forces and anti-Morsi demonstrators that threatened to further deepen the country’s polarization. CAIRO — Egypt’s bitter split over who should be ruling the country exploded into violent clashes in the streets of Cairo and elsewhere on Friday as masses of demonstrators celebrating the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi battled crowds of Islamists who wanted him reinstated.
Security officials said at least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded in political violence nationwide, with half the deaths in Alexandria, Egypt’s second-largest city. The Muslim Brotherhood, which organized the protests, said at least 17 of its supporters were killed. Combatants used rocks, sticks, fireworks and Molotov cocktails in a battle lasting hours that raged near Tahrir Square and across a bridge spanning the Nile, part of the most widespread street violence in Egypt since the early days of the 2011 revolution. The mayhem capped a day full of massive and defiant protests by Islamists demanding that Mr. Morsi be returned to power. At least four people were killed and many were wounded when security forces fired into a protest near the officers’ club of the powerful Republican Guard, where many believed Mr. Morsi was detained.
Witnesses said they saw at least five pro-Morsi demonstrators killed and many more wounded in gunfire outside the Republican Guard compound in Cairo where Mr. Morsi was believed to be detained, as thousands confronted a phalanx of armed soldiers, armored vehicles and barbed wire ringing the facility. With clashes breaking out late into the night, it was impossible to estimate the full extent of casualties and damage. But early Saturday, security officials said at least 30 people had been killed nationwide and hundreds wounded, many of them in Cairo.
“Where’s Morsi?” they screamed. Others denounced Egypt’s defense minister, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, who had ordered Mr. Morsi removed from power Wednesday night. “Traitor, traitor, traitor! Sisi is a traitor!,” they cried. Islamists also demanded Mr. Morsi’s reinstatement in other cities across the country, breaking into government offices in several provinces and temporarily evicting military officials.  Fifteen people died in Alexandria, and a curfew was declared in the Sinai Peninsula, where six soldiers and police officers were killed in at least four attacks on security posts.
Police forces battled angry Islamist protesters in cities across the country, including Alexandria, Luxor and Mansoura. In Beni Suef, about 50 miles south of Cairo, protesters chased the military governor from his office building and hung a portrait of Mr. Morsi on the gates. Clashes also were reported early in the day between more militant Islamist factions and security forces in the restive Sinai Peninsula, where a curfew was imposed. The new violence suggested that the military’s removal of Mr. Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president, after protests by millions of Egyptians angry with his rule, had worsened the deep polarization between Islamists who call his ouster a military coup and their opponents who say his removal was the result of an urgent need to fix Egypt’s myriad problems.
With military helicopters circling well into the night, a new round of mass street violence convulsed downtown Cairo. Rival crowds of protesters hurled rocks, missiles, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at each other in Tahrir Square, the spiritual center of Egypt’s 2011 revolution, and the 6th October Bridge, a heavily traveled elevated highway that spans the Nile River. “This has become a gang war, a street battle,” said Hisham al-Sayyed Suleiman, 50, an anti-Morsi demonstrator. By turning out in the tens of thousands, the pro-Morsi crowds underlined the organizational might of the Muslim Brotherhood, which emerged as the major political force and dominated rounds of elections after the country’s revolution two years ago. At that time, it gained power that many in the group had dreamed of for decades. The military’s intervention in politics this week entirely removed it from the government.
Tens of thousands of people also faced off in the streets just north of Cairo’s famous Egyptian museum and in front of the Ramses Hilton, a few hundreds north of Tahrir Square. The group called the protests the “Friday of Rejection” and chanted for Mr. Morsi’s return.
The immediate catalyst for the violent confrontation in central Cairo was over who had the right to Tahrir Square, the central theater of the 2011 revolution that led to the toppling of Mr. Morsi’s autocratic predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, and has been the main spot for aggrieved Egyptians ever since. Thousands of Islamists who had been protesting elsewhere in the city marched across the 6th October Bridge intending to enter Tahrir Square, but crowds celebrating the military’s removal of Mr. Morsi rushed to keep them out. “We will bring him back bearing him on our necks, sacrifice our souls for him,” Mohamed Badie, the group’s spiritual leader, told an enraged crowd at a large demonstration in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City. “We will bring back the rights of the Egyptian people who were wronged by this disgraceful conspiracy.”
“I don’t see this ending soon, because the Islamists keep saying they want Morsi or death,” Mr. Suleiman said. “The only hope is for security to come and pick them all up.” Mr. Badie said the reports that he had been among the Islamist leaders arrested in a post-Morsi crackdown by security forces were false. Hundreds of Islamists were detained within a day after Mr. Morsi’s ouster. Some were released on Friday.
The Cairo clashes abated, at least temporarily, after a half dozen armored vehicles full of black-clad police officers with shotguns and tear gas deployed on the bridge and headed toward the pro-Morsi crowd, firing their weapons, as the anti-Morsi side shouted “the police and the people are on hand!” Later some anti-Morsi demonstrators even posed for photos with the police officers as they still held their shotguns. An interim president installed by the military, Adli Mansour, a former chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, took a further step on Friday to erase the vestiges of Mr. Morsi’s government by formally dissolving the Shura Council, the country’s only operating house of Parliament, which the Islamists had dominated. The constitutional court had disbanded the lower house last year, one of many challenges Mr. Morsi had faced in his troubled tenure.
The pro-Morsi crowds, numbering in the tens of thousands, reflected the resilient power of the Muslim Brotherhood to organize mass rallies in the aftermath of the military intervention that deposed Mr. Morsi, the Islamist who was Egypt’s first freely elected president. The Muslim Brotherhood called the protests the “Friday of Rejection” and insisted that Mr. Morsi must be reinstated as the rightful head of state. In a further affront to the Islamists, the Egyptian news media have marginalized their message in the two days since Mr. Morsi was deposed. Despite the interim government’s pledge of inclusiveness, Islamist television broadcasters were shuttered, and the state television barely covered the breadth of the pro-Morsi demonstrations on Friday.
“We will bring him back bearing him on our necks, sacrifice our souls for him,” said Mohamed Badie, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who appeared at a mass pro-Morsi rally at the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque, stirring the crowd into impassioned anger. “We will bring back the rights of the Egyptian people who were wronged by this disgraceful conspiracy.” Underpinning the Islamists fears of the emerging political order was a keen awareness of the long history of enmity with the security services. While some Islamists did use violence against the state, Egypt’s previous rulers kept their power in check by banning their organizations and subjecting their members to arbitrary arrests and torture.
Mr. Badie said the widespread news media reports that he was among the Islamist leaders arrested in a post-Morsi crackdown by security forces were false. But in the aftermath of Mr. Morsi’s ouster, hundreds of Islamists were detained, and even though a few senior Muslim Brotherhood aides were released on Friday, all indications pointed to a worsening divide between Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters and his critics — including the powerful military that deposed him. For some, those memories have come flooding back.
An interim president installed by the military, the former chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adli Mansour, took a further step on Friday to disempower the vestiges of Mr. Morsi’s government by formally dissolving the Shura Council, the country’s only operating house of Parliament, which had been dominated by the Islamists. The constitutional court had disbanded the lower house last year, one of many challenges Mr. Morsi had faced in his troubled tenure. “They hung me up, they beat me, they used electricity — all the means of torture they had,” said Hussein Nada, 43, a protester, recalling the eight years he spent in prison for his association with the Gamaa al-Islamiyya, a radical Islamist group that attacked tourists in the 1990s but later renounced violence.
Islamists also expressed rage at how their ability to convey their message in the news media had been marginalized or eliminated in the two days since Mr. Morsi was deposed. Despite the interim government’s pledge of inclusiveness, Islamist television broadcasters were shuttered, and state television barely covered the breadth of the pro-Morsi demonstrations on Friday.
Egypt’s military commanders have justified the ouster of Mr. Morsi by saying they felt compelled to bring the country back together after millions of Egyptians demonstrated against him, claiming he had sought to monopolize power, neglected the economy and worsened divisions in society.
But if anything, the forced removal of Mr. Morsi seemed only to add a bitter new divisiveness into Egyptian politics.
The army’s re-entry and the arrest of Muslim Brotherhood members in particular made many fear that they had not only lost their political power but could also face the same repression they endured under President Mubarak.
Protester Hussein Nada, 43, said he had spent eight years in prison under President Mubarak because he was a member of the Gamaa al-Islamiyya, a radical Islamist group blamed for terrorist attacks on tourists and other targets in the 1990s, which has renounced violence in recent years. He named the four different prisons he had spent time in while counting them on his fingers.
“They hung me up, they beat me, they used electricity — all the means of torture they had,” he said.
“Anyone from the opposition who came to power could decide to put us all back in prison,” he said. “As soon as the army came back, they put hundreds on the arrests list, so we fear we could lose all we’ve gained.”“Anyone from the opposition who came to power could decide to put us all back in prison,” he said. “As soon as the army came back, they put hundreds on the arrests list, so we fear we could lose all we’ve gained.”
The military’s move against Mr. Morsi, which has drawn a mixed regional response, seems to have created a degree of isolation within the broader African continent. News reports said the African Union, the Pan-African representative body based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, resolved to suspend Egypt from all its activities in line with rules on the interruption of constitutional rule. The shooting outside the Republican Guard officers’ club broke out after protesters had reacted angrily to an officer who shredded a poster of Mr. Morsi that had been hung on the barbed wire blocking the entrance.
The prospect of more confrontation also raised concern at the United Nations. Navi Pillay, the top United Nations human rights official, said in a statement from Geneva that a “concerted effort is needed by all parties to establish sound political and legal institutions.” Blood spots stained the sidewalk where the wounded had fallen, and the size of the protest soon swelled as angry Islamists from elsewhere joined in.
“There should be no more violence, no arbitrary detention, no illegal acts of retribution,” she said. “Serious steps should also be taken to halt, and investigate, the appalling — and at times seemingly organized — sexual violence targeting women protesters.” “Where’s Morsi?” they screamed. Others denounced Egypt’s defense minister, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, who ordered Mr. Morsi’s removal on Wednesday. “Traitor, traitor, traitor! Sisi is a traitor!” they cried.
The clashes downtown erupted when masses of Mr. Morsi’s supporters marched across a Nile bridge to try to enter Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak and the main spot for aggrieved Egyptians ever since. Anti-Morsi demonstrators, camped in the square, rushed to keep them out, and the two sides clashed on and around a bridge near the Ramses Hilton Hotel and the Egyptian Museum.
“This has become a gang war, a street battle,” said Hisham al-Sayyed Suleiman, 50, who stood watching the clashes from the bridge.
Military helicopters circled as the two sides faced off, each protecting its front line with huge sheets of metal. Rioters pelted each other with rocks and chunks of concrete and lobbed fireworks over their opponents’ heads, showering them with a rain of red, green and blue sparks.
The pro-Morsi rioters surged onto the bridge and a battle raged over the Nile for hours until dozens of armored vehicles packed with black-clad riot police were deployed.
The anti-Morsi crowd hailed their arrival with cheers of “The people and the police are one hand!” and marched alongside as the armored convoy routed the Islamists off the bridge with blasts of birdshot and volleys of tear gas.
“They wanted to enter Tahrir so they could try to bring back Morsi, but we’ll never let that happen,” said Adel Ibrahim, 42, who carried a small satellite dish for a shield in one had and stones in the other. “If the Islamists try to come back, we will all unite against them.”
Once the clashes subsided, dozens of young men climbed atop the police vehicles to cheers from the crowd. Some stopped to pose for photographs with police officers holding their shotguns — a curious sight since the police had been widely detested for killing protesters during the anti-Mubarak uprising.
Some said the police joining forces with Mr. Morsi’s opponents meant that the Muslim Brotherhood had lost its place in the country.
“They tried to rule the whole country for themselves,” said Ali Hassan, 32. “But if you want to rule Egypt, you have to rule for everyone or the people will stand against you.”
In a sign that the anti-Morsi backlash may have overreached, a Mubarak-appointed prosecutor general, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, who had been dismissed by Mr. Morsi and was among those reinstated to his office on Thursday, resigned less than 24 hours later, apparently sensitive to the appearance of engaging in political retaliation.In a sign that the anti-Morsi backlash may have overreached, a Mubarak-appointed prosecutor general, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, who had been dismissed by Mr. Morsi and was among those reinstated to his office on Thursday, resigned less than 24 hours later, apparently sensitive to the appearance of engaging in political retaliation.
In a statement reported by Ahram Online, Mr. Mahmoud said he had decided to resign to “avoid the embarrassment of making judicial decisions against those who removed me from office.” Mr. Mahmoud said in a statement that he had decided to resign to “avoid the embarrassment of making judicial decisions against those who removed me from office.”

Ben Hubbard and David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Cairo, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Mayy El Sheikh and Kareem Fahim contributed reporting from Cairo, and Alan Cowell from London.

 The Obama administration, which provides $1.5 billion in annual aid to Egypt and has watched the crisis unfold with increased concern, called for calm. “We condemn the violence that has taken place today in Egypt,” Jennifer R. Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We call on all Egyptian leaders to condemn the use of force and to prevent further violence among their supporters.” 

Reporting was contributed by Mayy El Sheikh, David D. Kirkpatrick and Kareem Fahim from Cairo; Rick Gladstone from New York; Alan Cowell from London; and Peter Baker from Washington.