Deadly clashes continue in Cairo on 'Friday of Rage'

[DJKeefy]

Clashes are still ongoing in downtown Cairo as violence erupts in the city on what Islamists dubbed the “Friday of Rage” to protest the recent deadly police crackdown on their sit-ins.

Crowds are still gathered at Ramses Square, under the 15 May Bridge, as smoke rises from burnt tires in the area. Gunfire also continues to be heard. Live TV footage shows two groups of men facing each other apprehensively as the area mainly remains free of traffic, with only motorcycles moving amongst the crowds.

In addition, the headquarters of the state-run giant construction firm the Arab Contractors was torched.

Clashes broke out in downtown Cairo after a march of Islamists, and their supporters, came off the 15 May Bridge. Violence reportedly broke out between protesters and the neighbourhood’s residents as well as the police.

Similar clashes also broke out in the nearby Galaa Street and Ghamra area.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), spearheading Friday’s protests, said that it will continue its protest in Ramses Square and will perform the Isha (night) prayers there as well as funeral prayers for those who died in the day’s clashes.

At least twenty seven people have been killed in clashes nationwide on Friday, Egypt’s health ministry said. However, the Muslim Brotherhood says that at least 60 people have been killed in Ramses alone, citing sources at make-shift hospitals.

As protesters came off the march on the bridge they clashed with residents of Boulaq Abou El-Ela district. Stones were thrown between the clashing groups and gunfire could be heard.

Egyptian state television showed footage of two men armed with automatic weapons at a pro-Morsi march on Cairo’s 15 May Bridge above the Boulaq district.

According to Al-Ahram Arabic news website, residents of Boulaq gathered at the local Azbakiya police station in an anticipation of any attack, as assaults on police stations soared nationwide in the wake of the sit-in dispersals.

State news agency MENA reported that “over five cars, driven by masked men, have reached Ramses Square to distribute firearms” on those in the crowd in Ramses.

However, the FJP’s official Facebook page claimed that the interior ministry “brought masked men carrying Al-Qaeda’s flag to delude the people that they are protesters.”

The day's clashes began after thousands of Islamists marched in cities across Egypt on the "Friday of Rage" to protest Wednesday's crackdown on the six-week-old pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo, which left more than 600 people dead and thousands wounded.

The Egyptian army deposed Morsi on 3 July amid mass nationwide protests against him. Since then, the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups have been staging sit-ins and demonstrations calling for his reinstatement.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/79214.aspx