MB marches turn violent across Egypt on Friday

Scattered clashes erupted across Egypt between Muslim Brotherhood protesters and the police on Friday following morning prayers.

Two police cars were set on fire in Giza, allegedly by pro-Brotherhood demonstrators who threw fireworks at the vehicles and set their tires on fire, reported the privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY).

In the Omraneya neighborhood, protesters formed a human chain and carried signs reading, “Constitutional legitimacy” and “Morsi is the president,” as well as the black and yellow icon representing the Rabea al-Adaweya dispersal.

Demonstrators also took to the streets in Cairo’s Ain Shams and Alf Maskan neighborhoods. A photo circulated on social media allegedly taken at the Ain Shams protest depicting a protester carrying a piece of kofta on the end of an iron rod — a reference to recent controversial statements released by an army doctor claiming to have found a cure for AIDS and Hepatitis C using a device that “turns the disease into meat the patient can feed on.”

Protests turned violent in the Sidi Bishr neighborhood east of Alexandria when area residents and security forces clashed with Brotherhood protesters during their march following Friday prayers.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the protest. Ten demonstrators were arrested in the incident and were referred to the prosecution, the head of the Alexandria State Security Investigations Service told AMAY.

More clashes broke out in Fayoum governorate south of Cairo when members of the Tamarod (Rebel) movement that campaigned for former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster and the Nasserist Popular Current party attempted to block a Brotherhood march, according to AMAY.

The privately owned news channel CBC eXtra reported that pellet guns, Molotov cocktails and crude hand grenades were fired in the clashes, injuring both protesters and area residents.

As of early Friday evening the clashes were still ongoing.

Similar altercations erupted in the Arbaeen neighborhood of Suez where protesters reportedly threw fireworks at security forces, who dispersed them using tear gas.

No casualties have yet been reported by the Health Ministry in any of Friday’s clashes.

Five people accused of belonging to the Brotherhood were arrested in Kafr al-Zayat City on charges of attacking the police with Molotov cocktails.

Major Ashraf Abdallah, the Interior Minister’s senior assistant for the central security sector, said in an interview with the privately owned Mehwar channel that police forces were shooting video footage of protests and clashes to document and identify the “participants in violence.”

The footage would be delivered to the general prosecution as evidence of participating in rioting and violent acts, according to Abdallah.