Clashes with Muslim Brothers Continue in Egypt

CAIRO,(ST)_ Violent clashes erupted yesterday between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who killed  a  taxi driver in Ismailia  province and  citizens of  ” al-Tel al-Kabeer”  city,  leaving  ten persons wounded as people of the city came out to avenge the man  who was   brutally stabbed  to death by the Islamists .

News Egypt website said  that dozens of Morsi supporters of the “Muslim Brotherhood” group  killed Ayman Faraj, 30-year-old by blunt knives  and as a result  the  family and relatives of the victim burned dozens of shops owned by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and violent fights took place in the city resulted in serious  injury of 10 people .

The security forces were able to control the situation after hours of fights and violence that lasted until dawn and ended after the killer surrendered himself in to the police, fearing the wrath of the victim’s relatives who had gathered around his house.

In the ” Western” province  security men arrested three men  and confiscated   an automatic weapon and 35 rounds of caliber , 120 drug   tablets and three pieces of hashish .

Moreover, one wanted person  was arrested, accused  of  forming  a gang for auto theft . He had   one automatic rifle and five safes containing  70 rounds of the same caliber.

Meantime, thousands of supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi are defying a new warning from the cabinet by continuing their sit-ins in the capital, Cairo.

The country’s interim leaders have ordered police to end ongoing protests at two sites in the city,  but Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and other loyalists say they have no option but to continue the month-long sit-ins.

The Egyptian interior ministry says gradual steps will be taken to disperse the crowds, and  Information Minister Dorreya Sharaf el-Din: “The cabinet has decided to take all necessary measures”

“The continuation of the dangerous situation in Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares, and consequent terrorism and road blockages, are no longer acceptable given the threat to national security,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Police had been tasked to end the demonstrations “within the law and the constitution”, it added.

On Thursday, the ministry urged the protesters to “let reason and the national interest prevail, and to quickly leave”.

It said it would guarantee the safety of departing protesters and they would not be pursued by security forces.

The main sit-in is at a square near the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in the capital’s north-east, where clashes left some 70 people dead last Saturday, and in Nahda Square near the main campus of Cairo University.

The government has not given details of when the clearance could happen.

T. Fateh