CAIRO – New violence erupted in Egypt on Tuesday, leaving a total of 12 people dead and dozens injured, according to the latest tally, amid huge street protests and often devolved into clashes with police and between supporters and opponents of deposed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.Islamists called for renewed demonstrations to take place Tuesday night after the breaking of the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan, although during the day it was calm on the streets of Cairo.
Thousands of Morsi supporters gathered on Rabea al Adauiya Square in the capital, where one of Morsi’s aides gave a speech asking the crowd not to forget those who had died in the disturbances.
The main clashes occurred on Monday and early Tuesday morning in Cairo on Rebirth and Tahrir squares, in the city’s northern Qalioub district and near a police station in Nasr City.
Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Khatib said on Tuesday that at least nine people died and 86 were injured in the disturbances near Cairo University’s main campus on Rebirth Square.
The Muslim Brotherhood had announced earlier that five supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi died during a police attack, when allegedly police dressed in civilian clothes and snipers fired on people camped out in Rebirth Square.
However, a source with the Egyptian security services told Efe that the only violence there occurred between Islamist demonstrators and local residents.
Among the dead is a 14-year-old girl, the spokesman for the mobile hospital on Rebirth Square, Ashraf Abdel Gafar, told Efe, adding that 17 vehicles had been set ablaze by the protesters.
Another witness, Mohammed Said, told reporters that on Rabea al Adauiya square, the epicenter of the Islamist protests, police used shotguns and automatic weapons, as well as tear gas, in their efforts to subdue the crowd.
Three more fatalities were registered in clashes between supporters and opponents of Morsi clashed in Qalioub and on Tahrir Square, where at least 44 people were injured. Each side accused the other of starting the violence.
Meanwhile, in Nasr City clashes broke out between Morsi supporters and police after the Islamists passed by a police station after a march to the city’s airport.
One of the men wounded in that incident, Islam Amin, who was hit in the head by at least one shotgun pellet, said that the demonstrators had shouted that the police were “thugs” and the latter responded with tear gas and gunfire.
A total of 66 people have been arrested in the protests, the Interior Ministry said, adding that some of the people arrested were carrying firearms and bladed weapons.
Egypt finds itself divided into supporters and opponents of Morsi, who was deposed on July 3 by the army after huge street protests in previous days calling for a presidential election. EFE
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