Four people died in fierce clashes that erupted in Cairo Friday when Islamist supporters of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi protested against the military that ousted him.
Fighting also broke out after weekly Muslim prayers in Alexandria and the Upper Egypt province of Assiut as Islamists took to the streets protesting Morsi’s July 3 ouster and subsequent jailing, AFP correspondents and state media reported.
“Four people were killed in Cairo. The dead do not include members of police or security forces,” Khaled al-Khatib, head of Egypt’s emergency services told AFP, without elaborating.
Egypt’s ambulance services head Ahmed al-Ansari confirmed the death toll in Cairo and said another 45 people were wounded in nationwide violence.
The protests were called by the Anti-Coup Alliance led by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood in defiance of an ongoing crackdown by the country’s new army-backed authorities in which some 2,000 Islamists have been jailed.
Alarmed by the violence, both the United States and UN chief Ban Ki-moon renewed their pleas for peaceful protests.