CAIRO - Tens of thousands of protesters and Muslim Brotherhood supporters rallied Friday throughout Egypt against a military coup and a bloody security crackdown, though tanks and armored police vehicles barred them from converging in major squares.
The protests appeared smaller than the mass demonstrations seen in previous weeks, despite a push by the Brotherhood for “decisive” rallies across the country after Friday prayers.
The largest protest in the capital, Cairo, had more than 10,000 demonstrators. Thousands gathered in other cities, with smaller protests drawing hundreds, including many women and children.
Protesters marched through the streets chanting slogans against the country’s army chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the popularly backed July 3 coup that toppled President Mohammed Morsi, a longtime leader of the Brotherhood.
“The people want the death of the assassin,” the protesters yelled while waving the Egyptian flag and holding up yellow posters with the outline of a hand showing four fingers. Morsi supporters have used the symbol in online and street campaigns to remember the sit-in protest around the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque, which in Arabic means fourth.
Security forces cleared out that sit-in and another one two weeks ago in violent raids that sparked several days of violence. More than 1,000 people, most of them opposed to Morsi’s ouster, have been killed since. The Interior Ministry said more than 100 policemen and soldiers also have died in the violence.
Many of the protesters Friday were not Brotherhood members. Some said they were only seeking justice for relatives killed by securityforces this month or protesting the way in which Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, was removed from power.
“When it started, it was only about the return of Morsi to power,” protester Ahmed Osama said. “Now it has gone past that. Blood has been shed.”
Although largely peaceful, the protests drew some sporadic violence, as residents angry with the Brotherhood confronted the group’s supporters.
In the Mediterranean city of Port Said, one person was killed in clashes, security officials said. Another 22 residents were wounded by birdshot reportedly fired by the protesters, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Similar clashes took place in other parts of the country, including in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, where the Brotherhood said a protester was shot dead. The group did not elaborate. Health officials said 33 people were wounded by birdshot in the fighting.
Security forces also fired tear gas at protesters in Cairo, the Nile Delta city of Tanta and south of Cairo in Assiut. Meanwhile, Egypt’s state news agency said unidentified gunmen in two cars opened fire on a police station in the upscale Cairo neighborhood of Heliopolis, killing an officer and a civilian. The drive-by attack early Friday wounded another officer, according to the MENA agency.
The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, said its forces had orders to use deadly force in defense of public and private property if protests turned violent.
Residents in Cairo mostly stayed off the streets Friday in anticipation of the Brotherhood rallies. A military-imposed nighttime curfew in Cairo and 13 other provinces was to start two hours earlier Friday.
Once Egypt’s most powerful group, the Brotherhood has been unable to draw large crowds for protests after the security crackdown. Hundreds of the group’s members have been detained, including top leaders, as well as members’ relatives.
The crackdown has forced the group to plan and operate underground, the way it has for much of the more than 80 years of its existence. Protester Ahmed Khaled, among those leading the largest Cairo protest from Nasr City toHeliopolis, said organizers weren’t telling protesters where the march was heading for security reasons.
Khaled and others said they were receiving instructions by phone on where to direct their march. He declined to say who was leading the march.
“We stopped communicating the itinerary and destination of the marches so nobody can follow us or wait for us with snipers at the arrival point,” he said.
In the U.S. on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry tapped a career diplomat to temporarily replace the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Egypt.
David Satterfield, who has previously served as ambassador to Lebanon and held numerous senior Middle East-related positions at the White House and State Department, will serve at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, replacing Anne Patterson, who departed Friday. Satterfield will serve as the top American envoy to Egypt until a new ambassador is nominated and confirmed by the Senate.
Satterfield is currently director general of the multinational force in the Sinai and plans to return to that position later this year after his stint in Cairo, the State Department said. Kerry has recommended that the current U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, take the Egypt post, but his nomination is still being vetted by the White House.
Patterson, who is returning to Washington because she has been nominated to be the new assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, had been in Cairo for two years. She had been the target of criticism from Egyptians who accused her of taking sides in the country’s political tumult, which has led to the administration’s review of the $1.6 billion in aid the U.S. provides annually to Egypt.
Information for this article was contributed by Mariam Rizk and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 08/31/2013