Tanks deployed outside Morsi’s palace after seven killed in clashes
7 Dec 2012 7:16 AM IST
Egyptian troops pushed protesters back from the presidential palace on Thursday to keep them at bay, after the deadliest violence between allies and foes of Mohamed Morsi since the president’s election.
Soldiers, backed by tanks, set up a barbed wire perimeter roughly 150 metres (yards) from the palace, after ordering the rival protesters to pull back.
And in Morsi’s hometown, the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, police used tear gas to disperse protesters who surrounded the home of one of the president’s relatives, a police official said.
On Wednesday night, medical sources said, seven people were killed and 644 injured in clashes that pitted Islamists against an opposition that has escalated protests since Morsi issued a decree two weeks ago assuming sweeping powers. Another 50 people were arrested. Many demonstrators were injured by birdshot, the health ministry said, but it was not immediately clear who was firing.
Early on Thursday, intermittent gunshots rang out amid sporadic violence, a journalist said, before the Republican Guard, whose job is to protect the presidency, deployed troops and at least 10 tanks outside the palace.
A news correspondent said Morsi supporters who had camped out there began packing their belongings and leaving after a military ultimatum for them to leave by 3:00 pm (1300 GMT).
Anti-Morsi protesters were also pushed back, but a few hundred gathered in a square about 300 metres from the palace, in the upscale suburb of Heliopolis. They have said they will organise further marches to the palace. Republican Guard chief General Mohammed Zaki said the tanks were deployed to separate the warring sides, pledging that the military ‘will not be an instrument of oppression.’
Morsi, who often spends the night at his private home in another Cairo suburb, arrived at the palace early on Thursday. Egypt’s top Islamic body, Al-Azjar, told him he should ‘suspend the latest decree and stop using it,’ while also demanding an unconditional dialogue between the president and his opponents.
A senior aide said the president, elected in June, was expected to deliver a televised address to the nation at 1600 GMT, reaching out to the opposition, but there was no official confirmation of that.
Four of Morsi’s advisers have quit over the crisis, official news agency MENA reported, and the head of state television has also resigned, the independent newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm reported on its website.
The Cairo stock market took a heavy hit from the latest violence, with the EGX-30 index plunging 4.6 percent at the close.
Soldiers, backed by tanks, set up a barbed wire perimeter roughly 150 metres (yards) from the palace, after ordering the rival protesters to pull back.
And in Morsi’s hometown, the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, police used tear gas to disperse protesters who surrounded the home of one of the president’s relatives, a police official said.
On Wednesday night, medical sources said, seven people were killed and 644 injured in clashes that pitted Islamists against an opposition that has escalated protests since Morsi issued a decree two weeks ago assuming sweeping powers. Another 50 people were arrested. Many demonstrators were injured by birdshot, the health ministry said, but it was not immediately clear who was firing.
Early on Thursday, intermittent gunshots rang out amid sporadic violence, a journalist said, before the Republican Guard, whose job is to protect the presidency, deployed troops and at least 10 tanks outside the palace.
A news correspondent said Morsi supporters who had camped out there began packing their belongings and leaving after a military ultimatum for them to leave by 3:00 pm (1300 GMT).
Anti-Morsi protesters were also pushed back, but a few hundred gathered in a square about 300 metres from the palace, in the upscale suburb of Heliopolis. They have said they will organise further marches to the palace. Republican Guard chief General Mohammed Zaki said the tanks were deployed to separate the warring sides, pledging that the military ‘will not be an instrument of oppression.’
Morsi, who often spends the night at his private home in another Cairo suburb, arrived at the palace early on Thursday. Egypt’s top Islamic body, Al-Azjar, told him he should ‘suspend the latest decree and stop using it,’ while also demanding an unconditional dialogue between the president and his opponents.
A senior aide said the president, elected in June, was expected to deliver a televised address to the nation at 1600 GMT, reaching out to the opposition, but there was no official confirmation of that.
Four of Morsi’s advisers have quit over the crisis, official news agency MENA reported, and the head of state television has also resigned, the independent newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm reported on its website.
The Cairo stock market took a heavy hit from the latest violence, with the EGX-30 index plunging 4.6 percent at the close.
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