Egyptian riot police battle protesters in Cairo

Police were called out to contain clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi supporters on Friday in the nation's capital.

|
Mohamed Abd El Ghany/REUTERS
Supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood clash with anti-Morsi protesters during a march in Cairo October 4, 2013.

Egyptian riot police fired tear gas and locked down Cairo's Tahrir Square and several other main streets Friday as clashes broke out in what appeared to be a push by Islamist supporters of the ousted president to take control of the square.

Troops sealed off the square with tanks and barbed wire, diverting traffic from the central plaza as thousands of Mohammed Morsi's supporters marched there from several districts in the city.

Protesters encircled security forces and army troops guarding the square, prompting other security forces to fire volleys of tear gas to send the demonstrators away.

"Down down with the murderer!" protesters chanted, in reference to Defense Minister and Army Chief Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who forced Morsi out of power after millions took to the streets this past summer demanding he step down.

Meanwhile, civilians believed to be supporters of the military engaged in clashes with Morsi supporters that involved firing guns and throwing rocks.

An Associated Press reporter saw protesters pushed away by other Egyptians armed with sticks and bottles who chased them in the streets before the two sides started hurling stones just steps from the Egyptian museum, located at one of the main entrances of the square.

"We will go protest and take all streets possible," said Mohammed Said, 45, during a march from the Dokki neighborhood to Tahrir. "We will get in Tahrir at any price."

Another rally ended at a Defense Ministry building and a second at Rabaa el-Adawiyah mosque in eastern Cairo, where a pro-Morsi protest camp was violently dismantled on Aug. 14. Troops backed with armored vehicles beefed up security in the vicinity of the mosque, where protesters chanted slogans against the military.

Protesters flashed four fingers, their symbol in online and street campaigns for demonstrations.

Across the country, similar clashes broke out with police firing tear gas and gunshots in the air as residents and protesters clashed and threw stones at each other.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood group, from which Morsi hails, is escalating protests to coincide with commemorations of Egypt's Oct. 6 opening strike in the 1973 war with Israel.

Earlier in the day, at least two Egyptian soldiers were killed in an attack by suspected militants on an army convoy east of Cairo.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Egyptian riot police battle protesters in Cairo
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/1004/Egyptian-riot-police-battle-protesters-in-Cairo
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe