Egyptian army chief calls for street protests

Egypt’s army chief has called for demonstrations on Friday to give the military a mandate to confront “violence and potential terrorism”.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he was not calling for public unrest and wanted national reconciliation, according to BBC.

Army ‘united‘

In a speech at a military graduation ceremony, which was broadcast on television, Gen Sisi said: “I urge the people to take to the streets this coming Friday to prove their will and give me, the army and police, a mandate to confront possible violence and terrorism.”

“So that in case there was a resort to violence and terrorism, the army would have a mandate to confront this.”

Egypt crisis: Soldier killed in Mansoura bomb blast

One soldier has died and another is in a critical condition following a bomb blast in the Egyptian city of Mansoura.

Health officials said 29 people were hurt. A timed bomb hidden under a truck detonated near the security directorate in the Nile Delta city, north of Cairo.

About 100 people have died in clashes between backers and opponents of  Morsi  since he was ousted from office.

A spokesman for the health ministry in Mansoura said gunshots were exchanged between police and unknown assailants at the time the bomb went off.

Fears over violence

On Saturday night three women were killed in the same city, after clashes broke out during a march .

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Cairo says the latest violence is a worrying sign that Egypt’s political crisis is intensifying.

The army declared it had suspended the constitution, and organized a new temporary administration led by an interim President, Adly Mansour, the head of the Constitutional Court. A technocrat cabinet was later unveiled.

On Monday Mr Mansour made a televised appeal for an end to the violence. He called for a “new page in the book of the history of the nation, without rancor, hatred and confrontation.

R.Sawas