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| Africa North | |
| 3 killed as Egypt police clash with Bröderbünd | |
| 2013-12-28 | |
| Muslim Brotherhood supporters and police clashed across Egypt on Friday, leaving at least three dead in protests after the army-backed government declared the group a terrorist organisation. Violence broke out after Friday prayers. An 18-year-old Brotherhood supporter was shot dead during clashes in the Nile Delta city of Damietta. Another man was killed in Minya, a bastion of Islamist support south of Cairo. A third person was killed in Cairo, the interior ministry said, without giving details. Clashes between police and protesters flared in Cairo and at least four other cities on Friday. Police fired birdshot and tear gas at student protesters at Al Azhar’s Cairo campus. Gunfire was heard in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, where demonstrators threw fireworks and rocks at police who used teargas, a Reuters witness said. A number of police officers were injured in the clashes, the interior ministry said. Officials have issued a new round of harsher warnings against anyone taking part in protests in support of the Brotherhood, saying they will be punished under terrorism laws. The government has warned that anyone taking part in pro-Brotherhood protests face five years in prison. Jail terms for those accused under the terror law can stretch up to life imprisonment. Brotherhood leaders face the death penalty. The interior ministry said in a statement that 265 Brotherhood members had been arrested on Friday. Among them were at least 28 women. US Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy on Thursday and “expressed concern” about the terrorist designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and recent detentions, the State Department said.
In spite of the pressure, the group has continued near-daily protests. In a statement condemning the governmentÂ’s freezing of the funds of Islamist charity groups, the Brotherhood accused the government of spreading Christianity by empowering Coptic Christian charities over Islamic ones. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |