Egypt: Fatal clashes and hundreds more arrests in Muslim Brotherhood crackdown
- 10 years ago
Egypt has seen clashes across the country between police and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, leaving at least three people dead.
It came after the first Friday prayers since the army-backed government declared the group a terrorist organisation.
Security forces detained at least 265 suspected Brotherhood sympathisers, on top of dozens arrested on Thursday.
The widening crackdown, like this week’s bomb attacks, has further polarised opinion.
In clashes at Cairo’s al-Azhar University, local people opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood and students who support the organisation threw stones at each other.
Elsewhere an 18-year-old Brotherhood supporter was shot dead in the Nile Delta, while another man was killed in an Islamist stronghold south of Cairo. A third person was killed in the capital – no more details were given.
Euronews correspondent Mohammed Shaikhibrahim witnessed the violence at al-Azhar University and said from the scene: “The worsening conflict between the government and the Muslim Brotherhood is now turning into a battle over the Islamist group’s very existence, especially after the government declared it a terrorist organisation.”
It came after the first Friday prayers since the army-backed government declared the group a terrorist organisation.
Security forces detained at least 265 suspected Brotherhood sympathisers, on top of dozens arrested on Thursday.
The widening crackdown, like this week’s bomb attacks, has further polarised opinion.
In clashes at Cairo’s al-Azhar University, local people opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood and students who support the organisation threw stones at each other.
Elsewhere an 18-year-old Brotherhood supporter was shot dead in the Nile Delta, while another man was killed in an Islamist stronghold south of Cairo. A third person was killed in the capital – no more details were given.
Euronews correspondent Mohammed Shaikhibrahim witnessed the violence at al-Azhar University and said from the scene: “The worsening conflict between the government and the Muslim Brotherhood is now turning into a battle over the Islamist group’s very existence, especially after the government declared it a terrorist organisation.”