Opponents and supporters of Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi clash in Tahrir Square. Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
Dozens of protesters were injured on Friday as supporters and
opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood and its president Mohamed Morsi
threw stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails at each other in Tahrir
Square, Egypt's revolutionary epicentre.
The clashes went on for hours, after tensions were inflamed by both sides aiming barbed chants at each other. Protesters sympathetic to leftwing and liberal political forces were kicked out of the square after their anti-Morsi chants, only to return in greater numbers. Violence flared when Morsi supporters barred their path in the roads leading to Tahrir.
One man, Ibrahim El-Sheikhh, who was wounded in a beating from Morsi supporters, told the Guardian: "They trapped us from both sides after attacking our stage where we were chanting. As they beat me they chanted Allahu Akbar [God is Great] and said they'd kidnap me, but I managed to escape. This is the Muslim Brotherhood."
The original protest had been organised by secular political forces ostensibly to protest against the monopolisation of the drafting of Egypt's new constitution by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups. Secular political activists have often complained about Islamist hegemony in post-revolution Egypt.
There had been an escalation in anti-Morsi sentiment after 24 stalwarts of the Hosni Mubarak regime were acquitted in the "Battle of the Camel" trial on Wednesday. They had been charged in connection with attacks on protesters in Tahrir Square in February last year. Morsi supporters also protested the acquittals.
In response, the president attempted to remove the country's general prosecutor, the Mubarak appointee Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, by appointing him ambassador to the Vatican. Egyptian law, however, prohibits the removal of the general prosecutor and Mahmoud refused to vacate his post.
As night fell, after hours of clashes with no intervention by security forces, the Morsi supporters appeared to leave the square, while their opponents chanted: "Down with Morsi Mubarak."
The clashes went on for hours, after tensions were inflamed by both sides aiming barbed chants at each other. Protesters sympathetic to leftwing and liberal political forces were kicked out of the square after their anti-Morsi chants, only to return in greater numbers. Violence flared when Morsi supporters barred their path in the roads leading to Tahrir.
One man, Ibrahim El-Sheikhh, who was wounded in a beating from Morsi supporters, told the Guardian: "They trapped us from both sides after attacking our stage where we were chanting. As they beat me they chanted Allahu Akbar [God is Great] and said they'd kidnap me, but I managed to escape. This is the Muslim Brotherhood."
The original protest had been organised by secular political forces ostensibly to protest against the monopolisation of the drafting of Egypt's new constitution by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups. Secular political activists have often complained about Islamist hegemony in post-revolution Egypt.
There had been an escalation in anti-Morsi sentiment after 24 stalwarts of the Hosni Mubarak regime were acquitted in the "Battle of the Camel" trial on Wednesday. They had been charged in connection with attacks on protesters in Tahrir Square in February last year. Morsi supporters also protested the acquittals.
In response, the president attempted to remove the country's general prosecutor, the Mubarak appointee Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, by appointing him ambassador to the Vatican. Egyptian law, however, prohibits the removal of the general prosecutor and Mahmoud refused to vacate his post.
As night fell, after hours of clashes with no intervention by security forces, the Morsi supporters appeared to leave the square, while their opponents chanted: "Down with Morsi Mubarak."
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