Egyptians Protest Across the Country Against Mursi Regime

CAIRO,(ST)_ After the Egyptian police joined people ‘s protests against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood group,

Egypt’s security situation has deteriorated and police officers have been striking across the country.

On Friday the Interior Minister replaced Maged Nouh, the powerful head of country’s central security forces, with Ashraf Abdullah, the state news agency MENA said without giving a reason.

In Cairo, there were skirmishes between dozens of protesters and police on a Nile bridge near Tahrir Square, the heart of the 2011 uprising, while in the second city of Alexandria hundreds of people protested outside local government headquarters.

Hundreds of police refused to work for a third day at a base outside Ismailia, at the half-way point of the canal and where the Suez Canal Authority has its headquarters, after several of their colleagues were killed in recent clashes.

Thousands of Egyptian riot police and conscripts also went on strike on Wednesday to demand the resignation of the Interior Minister, saying he is too close to the country’s Islamist leadership, security sources said.

The Interior Ministry has been at the forefront of clashes involving the mainly young protesters, who complain that Mursi has done little to reform the police since the revolution.

News Reports in Port Said stressed that thousands of Egyptians packed the streets of the Suez Canal city of Port Said on Friday in protest at the deaths of local people in clashes with police and before a court decision in a contentious football riot case.

A protester in Port Said died of a bullet wound to the head on Friday which he sustained in clashes with police earlier in the week, a medical source said. Another protester died during the night after violence on Thursday.

Protesters holding flags chanted “With our blood we will redeem you, Port Said!” and “The people want to bring down the regime”, the signature chant of the demonstrators who ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule in 2011.

Egypt’s “revolution” eventually installed an elected Islamist-led government which is still , in vain,  struggling to assert its authority, restore order and revive the economy.

The protesters also called for the departure of police forces and shouted slogans against President Mohamed Mursi.

At least eight people have been killed in this week’s protests in the city, including three policemen.

In Alexandria a massive demonstration took the streets of the city during which demonstrators  chanted slogans demanding toppling the Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi and the Muslim brotherhood group and deploring the ministry of the Interior. The demonstrators threw  stones at security men.

T. Fateh