It now 6 dead. Meanwhile, a total of six presidential advisers have resigned from their posts to protest President Morsi's recent decrees and what they said was his inability to resolve the current political crisis
Egypt: Faction Fighting in the Streets Threatens Stability, leaves 5 dead, 450 wounded<http://www.juancole.com/2012/12/egypt-faction-fighting-in-the-streets-threatens-stability-leaves-5-dead-450-wounded.html> Posted on 12/06/2012 by Juan Egypt has descended into faction-fighting in the streets that left some 5 dead and 450 wounded on Wednesday<http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/59892.aspx>, as President Muhammad Morsi prepared to make a major address to the nation on Thursday. Violence has broken out not just in Cairo itself but also in provincial cities such as Suez, Port Said, Ismailiya, Zaqaziq and Alexandria. Not since the infamous Day of the Camel during the February 2011 demonstrations has Egypt seen this much widespread political violence in a single day. No one can understand why Morsi has been silent through the crisis he provoked on Saturday, when he announced that he would put a hastily-completed and fundamentalist-tinged constitution to a national referendum on December 15, which many observers complained does not allow time for a national debate on the some 25 articles that liberals view as dangerous to civil liberties. After massive demonstrations staged around the country on Tuesday by liberals, leftists and centrists that involved millions of Egyptians, on Wednesday the Muslim Brotherhood struck back.<http://www.bikyamasr.com/82327/egypts-brotherhood-anti-morsi-supporters-continue-to-clash-into-the-night/> At the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Heliopolis, the small group of remaining protesters had set up tents and painted anti-Morsi grafitti on the walls of the palace. Wednesday afternoon, a huge crowd of Muslim Brothers came to the presidential palace and attacked the left-liberals<http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/eyewitness-account-attack-presidential-palace-sit> with iron bars, sticks, knives molotov cocktails, stones, and in some cases live fire. The secularists threw stones and molotov cocktails back, but they were overwhelmed and pushed from the square into side streets, their tents destroyed. The fighting continued into the wee hours of the morning, when the state security forces showed up. By Thursday morning, the army had stationed tanks in front of the presidential palace. Muslim Brotherhood big businessman and political leader Khairat Shater was allegedly the one who ordered the violent attack on the leftist protesters<http://www.bikyamasr.com/82327/egypts-brotherhood-anti-morsi-supporters-continue-to-clash-into-the-night/> at the presidential palace. Certainly, someone high in the Brotherhood decided to raise the cost of protesting by committing Brotherhood cadres as street fighters. In Ismailia,<http://www1.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=868000&SecID=296&IssueID=0> angry crowds burned the HQ of the Muslim Brotherhood. In Suez, leftist, liberal and centrist crowds fought with the Muslim Brotherhood in the streets, then the anti-Brotherhood forces set fire to the HQ of the Freedom and Justice Party, the civil arm of the Brotherhood. Its interior was completely burned out. In Port Said, there was another big anti-Morsi demonstration,<http://www.alwafd.org/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1/10-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9/321037-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%8A%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%B6%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%B6%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%89> and there the Brotherhood was forced to remain in hiding. On Tuesday, leftists said, members of the Brotherhood had used firearms<http://onaeg.com/archives/437330> against the people there. On Wednesday the people pushed back, and chanted against this resort to arms. Crowds shouted Fall, fall the regime of the Supreme Guide (of the Brotherhood). They chanted against the Brotherhood Pharaoh. Many Egyptians believe that President Morsi is a front man for the secretive and cult-like leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. They also called for the abrogation of the draft constitution. In Egyptian port cities, the longshoremens and other unions are often left-leaning and secular-minded. Organizations like April 6, the Revolutionary Socialists, the Free Egyptians, and other leftist groups appear to have done a lot of the organizing of these demonstrations. In Zaqaziq in the Delta, home of President Morsi, crowds shouted against the proposed constitution and attacked the housing cooperative<http://www1.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=868000&SecID=296&IssueID=0> and the HQ of the Freedom and Justice Party with molotov cocktails, as well as menacing Morsis own house. They were angry with him about the violence against protesters in front of the presidential palace in Cairo. Five activists were arrested and the local head of the Brotherhoods FJP says he will press charges for the molotov cocktails. On Wednesday there were dueling demonstrations in two different parts of the large Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.<http://www.akhbar-today.com/55383> The Muslim Brotherhood rallied in front of the Sayyid Ibrahim Mosque on behalf of Morsi, chanting The People want the Law of God, and All prerogatives to the president! Hundreds of leftists marched at the Sidi Gaber Station Square. Security officers are alleged to have declined to provide protection to the FJP and Brotherhood HQs in the city. A Muslim Brotherhood leader was beaten up at Sidi Gaber. Egypt is so divided, with political factions now rumbling in the streets, that it could be on the verge of a descent into major instability if Morsi remains unwilling to offer his critics any sort of compromise. http://www.juancole.com/2012/12/egypt-faction-fighting-in-the-streets-threatens-stability-leaves-5-dead-450-wounded.html ------------------------------------------------ [image: clashes] Wounded protester treated after clashes between supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi outside presidential palace, Cairo, Egypt, Thursday (Photo: AP) Related A bloody night at Egypt's presidential palace<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/59852/Egypt/0/A-bloody-night-at-Egypts-presidential-palace-.aspx> Head of committee overseeing Egypt constitution referendum resigns<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/59884/Egypt/0/Head-of-committee-overseeing-Egypt-constitution-re.aspx> VIDEO: Morsi's supporters attack protesters at presidential palace Wednesday afternoon<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentMulti/59881/Multimedia.aspx> ElBaradei says Morsis legitimacy 'hangs by thread'<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/59876/Egypt/0/ElBaradei-says-Morsi%E2%80%99s-legitimacy-hangs-by-thread.aspx> Peaceful resolution of Egypt's political crisis unlikely in short term, observers fear<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/59865/Egypt/0/Peaceful-resolution-of-Egypts-political-crisis-unl.aspx> BREAKING: Presidential aides Abdel-Fattah, Sayyad resign to protest Brotherhood domination<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/59875/Egypt/0/BREAKING-Presidential-aides-AbdelFattah,-Sayyad-re.aspx> Clashes between supporters of President Mohamed Morsi and his opponents which started on Wednesday night have left five dead and 450 injured, according to the health ministry. Hospitals in the Heliopolis area continued to receive casualties of gunshots and rock throwing into the early hours of Thursday morning. El-Hosseini Abul-Deif, a journalist at El-Fagr newspaper, is one of those who were shot and was critically injured during the clashes and doctors at Zahraa Hospital declared him clinically dead on Thursday morning. The executive board of the Journalists' Syndicate has blamed the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood for the attack on El-Hosseini and also held President Morsi responsible for his failure to ensure public security. Meanwhile, a total of six presidential advisers have resigned from their posts to protest President Morsi's recent decrees and what they said was his inability to resolve the current political crisis. The president's chief of staff, Refaa Tahtawi, told reporters on Thursday morning that President Morsi would address the nation sometime later in the day. "There will be no return to the past, yet, there will be moves to the future," Tahtawi said without giving details on what measures the president intends to announce to deal with the crisis. Meanwhile, Sobhi Saleh, a leading Brotherhood figure and former MP, who was attacked by anti-Morsi protesters in Alexandria on Wednesday night, told reporters that "revolutionaries should be ashamed of themselves because the Brotherhood are the most noble people." Late on Wednesday night, Zaghloul El-Balshi, the newly appointed head of the election commission, which is set to organise the upcoming referendum on the constitution set for 15 December, resigned from his post saying that he refuses to monitor "a vote that spilled Egyptian's blood." According to the official state news agency, MENA, the Egyptian presidential guard deployed tanks on Thursday morning at the presidential palace, where the clashes have been taking place since Wednesday afternoon, to maintain order. At 4pm on Wednesday, hundreds of supporters of President Morsi attacked anti-Morsi protesters with truncheons in an attempt to disperse a peaceful protest against the recently issued constitutional declaration, which gives the president the power to override the country's judiciary. Two hours later, anti-Morsi protesters descended on the palace to protest the attacks before escalations ensued. Later in the night, anti-Morsi protesters, angered at the attack on the sit-in at the presidential palace, torched two Brotherhood headquarters in Ismailia and Sharqiya governorate. http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/59892/Egypt/Politics-/-dead,--injured-in-clashes-at-Egypts-presidential-.aspx [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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