CAIRO - Tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi rallied Friday in Cairo, and the sides fought each other in the second-largest city, Alexandria, where at least two people were killed - including an American - and 85 were injured, officials said.
The competing camps were trying to show their strength before even bigger nationwide protests planned by the opposition Sunday - the first anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration - aimed at forcing his removal.
The opposition said millions will take to the streets across Egypt, and more violence is feared.
Cairo International Airport was flooded with departing passengers, an exodus that officials said was unprecedented. All flights departing Friday to Europe, the U.S. and the Persian Gulf were fully booked, they said.
Many of those leaving were families of Egyptian officials and businessmen and those of foreign and Arab League diplomats - as well as many Egyptian Christians, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to news media.
For several days, Muslim Brotherhood members and opponents of Morsi have battled in cities in the Nile Delta. With Friday’s deaths, at least six have been killedthis week.
“We must be alert lest we slide into a civil war that does not differentiate between supporters and opponents,” warned Sheik Hassan al-Shafie, a senior cleric at Al-Azhar, the country’s most eminent Muslim religious institution.
Morsi opponents massed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests in 2011 that ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. The crowd shouted, “Leave, leave” - this time addressing Morsi. Tents were put up on the grass in the middle of the historic square.
Dozens of protesters also gathered at the gates of the presidential palace in theHeliopolis neighborhood of Cairo, urging him to resign, Egypt’s state news agency reported.
At the same time, tens of thousands of Morsi supporters, mainly Islamists, filled a public square outside the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque, not far from the palace, as the imam urged Muslims to choose peace over violence.
“They say the revolution is in Tahrir,” said young activist Abdel Rahman Ezz, a Morsi supporter who addressed the crowd. “It is true the revolution started in Tahrir. But shamefully, today the remnants of the old regime are in Tahrir. The revolutionary youth are here.”
Nearby, vendors sold plastic hard hats. Men who took them said they wanted protection from the blistering sun, but also from rocks, in anticipation of clashes with anti-Morsi protesters.
Some carried long plastic tubes as clubs, one had a golf club and another a wooden rolling pin - all for self-defense, the men said.
The palace is one of the sites where the opposition plans to gather Sunday and has been surrounded by concrete walls. Islamist parties have decided to hold a sit-in at nearby Rabia el-Adawiya.
In Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast, fighting began after thousands of anti-Morsi demonstrators marched toward the Brotherhood’s headquarters, where up to 1,000 supporters of the president were deployed, protecting the building.
Alexandria security chief Gen. Amin Ezz Eddin told Al-Jazeera TV that an American was killed in Sidi Gabr Square while photographing the battle. A medical official said the American died of gunshot wounds at a hospital. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell acknowledged late Friday that an American had died.
Gen. Amin Ezz al Din, the head of security in Alexandria, said the American, whom he described as a 21-year-old male, was fatally stabbed about 3:30 p.m. as he was filming clashes “with a small camera” between pro- and anti-Morsi protesters. Din saidthe American was swept up in the fight and stabbed in the chest “with some sort of machete.” Protesters dragged the victim to an ambulance, Din said, where paramedics declared him dead.
“Those who killed him andothers are suspected thugs,” Din said.
The conflicting reports on the American’s death could not be reconciled immediately.
The State Department said Friday afternoon that Americans should defer nonessential travel to Egypt, citing the uncertain security situation. It also said it would allow some nonessential staff members and the families of personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to leave Egypt until conditions improve.
The Alexandria health department reported an Egyptian also died from a gunshot wound to the head. It was not immediately known if that victim was a Morsi opponent or supporter.
The country witnesseda wave of attacks against Muslim Brotherhood offices across the country. The Brotherhood’s media spokesman, Gehad el-Haddad, said on his Twitter account that eight of his group’s offices were attacked and looted, and twowere burned down.
Much of the violence was in the provinces of the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.
The Brotherhood also said at least five of its supporters were killed during attacks on its headquarters and onmosques over the past three days. Early Friday, at least one person died in Zagazig, Morsi’s hometown, according to the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing.
There were reports of violence from the Islamist side in the Delta as well.
At least six people were injured when an anti-Morsi march was attacked by the president’s supporters in the city of Samanod, according to a security official. Attackers fired gunshots and threw acid at the protesters as they passed the house of a local Brotherhood leader, the official said.
In the city of Tanta, four men believed to be Morsi supporters tried to attack a mosque preacher during his sermon, in which he called on worshippers to stand with Al-Azhar’s calls to avoid bloodshed.
In Qalioubia, north of Cairo, “popular committees” in charge of managing traffic stopped a caravan of more than 90 Islamists heading toCairo, according to a security official. The group, traveling in a bus and three minibuses, carried Molotov cocktails, clubs and gas cans, the official said.
One small bus escaped, but the others were turned over to police, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk with news media.
Each side has insisted it is peaceful and will remain so Sunday, blaming the other for violence.
Tamarod, the activist group whose anti-Morsi petition campaign evolved into Sunday’s protest, said in a statement it was opposed “to any attack against anybody, whatever the disagreement with this person was,” and accused the Brotherhood of sparking violence to scare people from participating Sunday.
Tamarod said it has collected nearly 20 million signatures in the country of 90 million demanding Morsi step down.
“We are against Morsi because he does not govern in the name of the Egyptian people, but in the name of the Brotherhood group,” said Ayed Shawqi, a teacher at an anti-Morsi rally in Alexandria.
Outside the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque, the pro-Morsi crowd waved Egyptian flags while speakers addressed them from a stage.
“Those who burn and those who kill are the traitors of this nation,” Brotherhood preacher Safwat Hegazi told the crowd. “Mr. President, use a heavier hand, your kind heart won’t be any use. … We want to complete our revolution and purify our country.” Information for this article was contributed by Tony G. Gabriel, Steve Negus, Mohammed Khalil and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press; by Kareem Fahim,Ben Hubbard, David D. Kirkpatrick and Mayy El Sheikh of The New York Times; and by Nancy A. Youssef, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Amina Ismail of McClatchy Newspapers.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/29/2013