At least five Egyptian demonstrators were killed in Cairo during clashes overnight between supporters of and protesters against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. The number of protesters injured in the riots that began Wednesday evening rose to 440 overnight, according to MENA news and the Health Ministry.
According to medical sources, five protesters were killed by bullets, one shot with a hunting rifle close to his heart.
Another source claimed seven people, including a young girl, were killed last night.
At the same time, the Muslim Brotherhood said on its website that five of their supporters also were killed, without giving further details or even showing their names, which makes this claim dubious.
According to an AFP correspondent in Cairo, clashes over the Egyptian president's controversial draft constitution erupted between pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators Wednesday afternoon, lasting until the early hours of Thursday morning.
Witnesses said fighting broke out after supporters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood dismantled tents set up by opposition activists outside the presidential palace in Cairo's eastern district of Heliopolis.
Other witnesses have said that supporters of Morsi were armed with knives and pistols.
According to media reports, Wednesday's violence began when rocks and petrol bombs were thrown at an opposition sit-in outside the presidential palace. Both sides blamed the other for inciting the violence. Riot police and forces from the elite Republican Guards were sent in to break up the conflict, and 32 arrests were made, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry. But the clashes continued into early Thursday morning.
Anti-Morsi protests also erupted in city of Alexandria, Sohag, Ismailia and Suez.
Meanwhile, the state-run newspaper Al Ahram reported Thursday that forces from the elite Republican Guards were sent to secure the state TV building in central Cairo. Moreover, at least three tanks and two armored troop carriers were stationed outside the presidential palace (Kasr al-Ittihadiya), in the northern Cairo district of Heliopolis Thursday morning.
Moreover, the state-run Nile News TV said that Morsi, who has not made any public appearances since Wednesday, will give a speech to the nation Thursday.
For his part, Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil asked for an opportunity for the efforts being made now to begin a national dialogue. Qandil insists that a referendum on the draft constitution will go ahead later this month.
According to Ikhwanweb, the Muslim Brotherhood's official website, the head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie said in a statement published on the website that divisions only serve the nation's enemies.
Opinion:
What happened Wednesday night is proving that the Egyptian people are ruled by someone who is more horrible than Mubarak, and that the international community should support the Egyptian people and ask Morsi to leave, because this man proves every day that he is no friend of democracy. Moreover, only five months after winning the presidential elections, he has started to kill and murder.
Today I can say that the role of the Muslim Brotherhood during the uprising of the Egyptian people against Mubarak's rule was violence, killing and spreading false news among the demonstrators in Tahrir Square, so as to increase hatred on President Hosni MubarakPresident Hosni Mubarak at that time. I wrote in earlier reports on Allvoices that Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood could not handle democracy and urged the Egyptian people to resist and work on fixing their spring before it's too late.
I do not know what Morsi will say to the angry Egyptian people, but what is certain that he is following the Brotherhood plan, and they are backing him. The maximum action that might be taken by Morsi is to carry out investigations in the events of Wednesday night, with full transparency and to punish the guilty ones. Nevertheless he will never give up his decision that he is above the law.
I think that the coming days will witness violent escalations, because the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood started making aggressive movements against the Egyptian people.
On the ground, the dirty game scenarios might start, which will include assassinations and threats that will force many people to go and leave Egypt to face Morsi's hell alone. I pray to God to protect the people of Egypt.
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06
http://www.alwatanvoice.com/arabic/news/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec
http://news.yahoo.com/protest-egypt-pres
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