Scores of people have been killed across Egypt as Islamists and security forces clashed in Cairo and other provinces on Friday during protests against a deadly crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohammad Mursi.In the Mediterranean town of Damietta eight people were killed clashes with security forces, Reuters reported, quoting medical sources. “The number of people killed in Damietta rose to eight,” said emergency service official Abdel Wahab Dura In the capital Cairo, gunfire was heard at the sites of at least two demonstrations, witnesses said.Smoke was seen rising from Cairo’s Ramses Square, where thousands gathered after Friday prayers. Reuters reported that four have been killed there.In the Suez Canal city of Ismailia security sources said five protesters loyal to ousted Islamist President Mohammad Mursi, according to AFP.Al Arabiya correspondent in Port Said reported that clashes broke out between Mursi supporters and security forces.Violence was also reported elsewhere, with state media saying a policeman was killed in an armed attack on a Cairo checkpoint. And security sources said clashes had broken out between Mursi supporters and security forces in Tanta, north of the capital. Marches were also reported in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, in Beni Sueif and Fayoum, south of Cairo, and in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada. “Down with military rule,” demonstrators chanted as they waved photos of Mursi and Egyptian flags. Earlier, the army had deployed around Cairo, where streets were deserted ahead of what Mursi supporters dubbed a “Friday of anger.” Soldiers manned roadblocks on major thoroughfares, closing off some of them with armored personnel carriers. The demonstrations come after 578 people were killed on Wednesday in clashes in Cairo as police cleared two Mursi protest camps and elsewhere in the country, in Egypt’s bloodiest day in decades.The interior ministry gave orders on Thursday for police to use live fire if government buildings come under attack. Residents of some areas formed their own roadblocks, checking identity papers and searching cars.

International response

The international community expressed grave concern, with the president of the U.N. Security Council pleading for “maximum restraint” after an emergency meeting on Wednesday’s violence. French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Friday for urgent European consultations on the escalating crisis in Egypt, according to Reuters. The two leaders discussed the crisis by telephone and “called for an immediate end to the violence” and for the foreign ministers of the EU to meet quickly next week over the deteriorating situation in Egypt, the French presidency said in a statement.U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington was cancelling a joint U.S.-Egyptian military exercise. “While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back,” he said. But despite scrapping the Bright Star exercise, which has been scheduled every two years since 1981, he stopped short of suspending Washington’s annual $1.3 billion in aid. The U.S. State Department warned citizens not to travel to Egypt and called on those already there to leave. Egypt’s interim presidency responded defiantly to Obama, warning that “statements not based on facts may encourage violent armed groups.” Turkey, which backs Mursi, recalled its ambassador to Cairo over the violence, prompting a tit-for-tat move by Egypt. U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay called for an investigation into Wednesday’s bloodshed, saying the death toll suggested “an excessive, even extreme, use of force against demonstrators.”The European Union said Friday that top officials would hold an emergency meeting on the situation in Egypt, where the army-installed government has imposed a state of emergency and night-time curfews.Sporadic violence continued throughout the country in the form of attacks on security personnel, with 13 killed in the Sinai Peninsula in 24 hours. Gehad al-Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman, announced Friday’s marches on his Twitter account.
“Anti-coup rallies... will depart from all mosques of Cairo and head towards Ramsis Square after (noon) prayer in ‘Friday of Anger,’” he wrote. On Thursday, Tamarod, the protest group that organized opposition to Mursi’s rule, also urged Egyptians to take to the streets. It said they should rally on Friday “to reject domestic terrorism and foreign interference.”(AFP and Reuters)