Supporters of Mohamed Morsi, as well as activists opposed to authoritarianism of Morsi and General Sisi, took part in protests
Mourners
carry the coffin of a man killed during Saturday's clashes between
protesters and security forces in Cairo. Photograph: Ahmed Omar/AP
Hussein's classmate, Mohamed Yehia, was shot dead by police on Saturday, the third anniversary of the Egyptian uprising – a day that was meant to be a celebration.
But for many it was instead one of protest and mourning, with officials confirming on Sunday that 49 people had been killed in nationwide protests against the regime installed last July by the army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Fierce clashes raged in several neighbourhoods across the country, with armoured police vehicles charging at protesters in downtown Cairo.
Supporters of Egypt's ousted Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, as well as activists opposed to the authoritarianism of both Morsi and Sisi, took part – and 1,079 people were arrested.
"This is not the Egypt that we are looking for," said Ayman Abdelmeguid, a spokesman for the 6 April group, the secular youth movement that organised many of the first protests against Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Violence of a different kind continued on Sunday in the Sinai peninsular, where Islamist extremists ambushed and killed three policemen. It continued a militant surge against security forces that saw four bombs explode in Cairo on Friday, and an army helicopter allegedly shot down on Saturday.
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The New York Times
Clashes Kill 49 Egyptians on Uprising’s Anniversary
CAIRO
— Thousands of Egyptians celebrated the third anniversary of their
revolt against autocracy on Saturday by holding a rally for the military
leader who ousted the country’s first democratically elected president.
Elsewhere, at least 49 people died in clashes with security forces at
rival antigovernment protests organized by Islamists and left-leaning
activists.
In
at least on-e case, the Islamists and liberals chanted against each
other. But within as little as 15 minutes, riot police officers began
firing tear-gas cannons and shooting guns into the air, swiftly
dispersing the protests and leaving the day to the military leader, Gen.
Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi.
The
violence escalated as the day went on. The Way of the Revolution Front,
a group opposed to the Islamists as well as the military takeover,
urged its supporters to retreat from the streets in the face of what it
called “the excessive force that police are using against whoever tries
to express their opinion.”
By
Sunday morning, health officials said the death toll from clashes with
the police had reached at least 49, most killed in the Cairo area.
Security officials said more than 1,000 were arrested around the
country. By Saturday night, more than 430 had been arrested in greater
Cairo alone.
In
the canal city of Suez, a car bomb at a police camp wounded four
officers, officials said, the latest in a campaign of attacks on
security forces since the military takeover. The violence on Saturday
came a day after four bombings around the capital killed at least six
people and clashes with the police killed another eight. But the
government appeared determined to prevent any of the protests or deaths
from dimming the spectacle of the rally for General Sisi, or the
momentum of his presumed presidential campaign.
The enthusiasm of his supporters, however, also hinted at some of the outsize expectations he might face in office.
Hassan
Shehab, 52, a shopkeeper carrying a poster of a son killed by security
forces during the 2011 uprising, said he believed General Sisi would
“turn Egypt from a third-world country to a first-world country” while
bringing justice for the revolution’s “martyrs.”
“He
will hold the police accountable and put them on trial, as soon as they
get rid of the terrorism of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Mr. Shehab said.
The
Brotherhood, an eight-decades-old Islamist organization, sponsored the
most successful party in Egypt’s free elections in 2011 and 2012. Its
candidate, Mohamed Morsi, became president and held that position until
he was ousted by the military in July amid swelling street protests
against him.
The
military has been portraying the Brotherhood as a terrorist threat ever
since. On Friday, government officials quickly blamed it for the day’s
four bombings.
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In
this image made from video broadcast on Egyptian State Television,
Egypt's interim President Adly Mansour speaks at the presidential palace
in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014.
