Sisi calls for mass protests in Egypt to confront ‘terrorism’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGE3zVFbRew

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Egypt’s top army officer on Wednesday called for mass street protests to give him a mandate to confront terrorism three weeks after he removed the elected president.

General Abdel-Fattah el Sisi asked Egyptians to take to public squares across the country on Friday in support of a military crackdown on what he described as terrorism.

Thousands of supporters of Mohamed Morsi have held daily demonstrations demanding the president’s restoration in protests that have sometimes led to violent clashes.

“Egyptians must take to the streets on Friday to give me the mandate to face violence and terrorism,” said the general in a speech at an armed forces event.

Wearing dark sunglasses and full military regalia, he added: “Egyptians must take to the squares to show the whole world that they are still represented. Friday is the day we, the army, the people and the police, will unite.”

Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group immediately lashed out at the general. “Your threats will not prevent millions from taking to the streets” in support of Morsi, Essam El-Erian wrote on Twitter. “When a leader loses a battle he takes his decisions with honour. But sadly you haven’t fought a battle before and you are always sitting in your office receiving reports and weaving plots.”

The army officer’s foray into mass politics followed a bomb explosion early on Wednesday morning at a security headquarters north of Cairo. The blast killed one police conscript and injured 27 officers and civilians, adding a new dimension to the violence that has shaken Egypt since the overthrow of the country’s elected Islamist president three weeks ago.

The explosion at the main security directorate in the Nile Delta provincial capital of Mansoura damaged police vehicles and shattered windows, the state-owned Ahram newspaper website reported. Interim president Adli Mansour’s spokesman, Ahmed El-Muslimani, described it as a “terrorist attack”.

It came five days after supporters of the deposed president claimed security forces in Mansoura killed two women and a teenage girl at a demonstration, raising the prospect of tit-for-tat killings that could cloud the country’s return to democratic governance.

The bombing could also mark a second instance of a spread to Egypt’s mainland of the type of violence prevalent in the Sinai peninsula, where Islamist militants frequently attack security forces. Another bomb hit a police station in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia at the weekend.

Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood denied any involvement in the Mansoura bombing. It warned in a statement on the group’s website of “an apparent plan by security and intelligence agencies to plot violent attacks to terrorise citizens and then attempt to link these incidents to the peaceful protesters”.

But the Brotherhood has conceded it has little control over some elements within the pro-Morsi camp, which includes a variety of Islamist parties and groups as well as individuals opposed to the July 3 coup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGE3zVFbRew

The unrest following the popularly backed military overthrow of Mr Morsi’s government shows little sign of abating. For the second morning in a row, alleged plainclothes enforcers with possible ties to the official security forces attacked pro-Morsi demonstrators on Wednesday, killing two and bringing the total of those killed in street clashes in and around Cairo over the last two days to 11.

Clashes between Morsi supporters, security forces and Morsi opponents have led to scores of deaths, mostly of Morsi supporters, in the wake of the president’s overthrow. Mr Mansour’s government called for a round of reconciliation talks between the country’s political camps on Wednesday.

But with Mr Morsi and much of the Brotherhood’s senior leaders under military detention and violence persisting, few expect the dialogue to bear fruit. The Brotherhood has already said it won’t attend, according to Al Jazeera television, and even the country’s second-largest Islamist group, the Nour party, under pressure from its rank-and-file for initially endorsing the coup, has yet to confirm it will attend.

In his speech, Gen Sisi said he considered himself under the authority of the interim government and remained committed to upholding a road map towards democratic elections even as he appeared to expand his mandate. In recent days, his aides have repeatedly quashed rumours that he was considering running for president.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGE3zVFbRew