Military Coup in Egypt

CAIRO (Dispatches) -- Security forces shot dead at least three supporters of deposed Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi on Friday as a crowd of hundreds tried to march towards the military barracks in Cairo where he is being held by the military that overthrew him.

Thousands of Mursi supporters demonstrated in cities across the country on what his Muslim Brotherhood called a "Friday of rage" against what they describe as a military coup that toppled Egypt's first elected leader a year after he took office.

The protesters dismissed the new interim head of state sworn in a day earlier, senior judge Adly Mansour, as "the military puppet".

Thousands of people also took to the streets of Alexandria and Assiut to protest against the army's ouster of Mursi and reject a planned interim government backed by their liberal opponents.

In the Suez city of Ismailia, soldiers fired into the air as Mursi supporters tried to break into the governor's office. The protesters retreated and there were no casualties, security sources said.

Egypt's liberal coalition issued an "urgent call" for its supporters to take to the streets in response to protests, raising the risk of clashes between the rival groups.

In Damanhour, capital of the Beheira province in the Nile Delta, 21 people were wounded in violence between the factions.

Ehab el-Ghoneimy, manager of the Damanhour general hospital said three people had been wounded with live bullets, others were wounded with birdshot, rocks, or had been hit with rods.

Dozens of people were wounded in clashes in Mursi's Nile Delta home city on Thursday, raising fears of more of the violence in which several dozen have died in the past month.

In the Sinai Peninsula near Occupied Palestine, gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades at army checkpoints guarding an airport and rocketed a police station near the border with the Palestinian territories. One soldier was killed and two wounded, a security source said.

An army spokesman said the army in the Sinai Peninsula was "on alert". He denied an earlier report by state-owned media Al-Ahram that a state of emergency had been imposed in the South Sinai and Suez provinces, which had caused a spike in oil prices from international markets on edge over the unrest.

In the skies above the teeming city, the air force staged fly-pasts, with jets leaving red, white and black smoke streams - representing the Egyptian flag - behind them in a show of force the military has employed frequently since Mursi's ouster.

The first steps for creating a post-Mursi government were taken Thursday, when Mansour, the 67-year-old chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, was sworn in by fellow judges as interim president. A cabinet of technocrats is to be formed to run the country for an interim period until new elections can be held — though officials have not said how long that will be. In the meantime, the constitution has been suspended.

Mursi has been under detention in an unknown location since Wednesday night, and at least a dozen of his top aides and advisers have been under what is described as "house arrest" though their locations are also unknown.

Besides the Brotherhood's top leader, General Guide Muhammad Badie, security officials have also arrested his predecessor, Mahdi Akef, and one of his two deputies, Rashad Bayoumi, as well as Saad el-Katatni, head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, and ultraconservative Salafi figure Hazem Abu Ismail, who has a considerable street following.

Authorities have also issued a wanted list for more than 200 Brotherhood members and leaders of other Islamic groups. Among them is Khairat el-Shater, another deputy of the general guide who is widely considered the most powerful figure in the Brotherhood.

Badie and el-Shater were widely believed by the opposition to be the real power in Egypt during Mursi's term.

The arrest of Badie was a dramatic step, since even Mubarak and his predecessors had been reluctant to move against the group's top leader.

Iran Urges Vigilance

Tehran called on the Egyptians to remain vigilant in the face of divisive enemy plots and distance themselves from militarism, saying that an all-encompassing democratic trend should take hold in Egypt and the achievements of the country’s 2011 revolution be preserved.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Afro-Arab affairs Hussein Amir-Abdollahian said the Egyptians’ legitimate demands should be respected in their quest for independence, freedom and democracy.

He noted that any conflict that would lead to violence in Egypt would play into the enemies’ hands.

“Undoubtedly, the perceptive and insightful people of Egypt will thwart the Zionist regime and enemies’ opportunism as well as bids to stop the growing trend of democracy which is the fruit of the Egyptian revolution,” he pointed out.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi stressed the importance of respect for the Egyptians’ legitimate demands and reinforcement of national unity, urging the Egyptian people to avoid violence.

Iran is following the developments in Egypt and respects the Egyptian people’s political will, Araqchi added.

The spokesman expressed hope that the demands of the Egyptian people, parties, and political groups would be heeded through a democratic path, and the ground prepared for Egyptians from all walks of life to have a say in running the country’s affairs.

*Pro-Mursi protesters carry an injured man during clashes outside the Republican Guard building in Cairo.