Seventeen people were killed in Egypt today in fresh clashes between security forces and ousted President Mohamed Morsi's supporters, who took to the streets after Friday prayers to protests against the killing of over 600 protesters in a crackdown by military-backed government.
Defying Interior Ministry's warning that police would use live ammunition against anyone threatening public buildings, thousands of supporters of Morsi's party Muslim Brotherhood thronged streets and clashed with the security forces in the capital Cairo, Ismailiya, Damietta, Alexandria and elsewhere.
The army deployed dozens of armoured vehicles around the the capital and blocked all roads leading to Rabia al-Adawiya where hundreds were killed in police firing on Wednesday. Barbed wires blocked all entrances to Tahrir Square, the scene of anti-regime protests during January 2011 revolution.
Officially the death toll in the fresh violence has been put at 17, but Muslim Brotherhood claimed that 25 of its supporters have been killed in police firing.
The protesters demanded an end to military-backed government and reinstatement of 62-year-old Morsi, who was ousted by the army on July 3 after countrywide protests.
