Muslim Brotherhood rallies in Cairo after night of violence

  • 11 years ago
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood run chanting through the streets in Cairo on Thursday morning after overnight clashes.

They're among tens of thousands from the Islamist party who are heeding a call to mass at the presidential palace to counter an opposition sit-in.

Meanwhile, Egyptian army tanks deployed outside the presidential palace in what Egypt's state news agency said was a measure to secure the palace.

Clashes outside the palace overnight killed at least five people and wounded 350.

The violence started after pro-Mursi groups came to disperse the sit-in on Wednesday evening, soon after the area became a chaotic battleground between the president's Islamist backers and their opponents.

Mursi's opposition is angered by a November 22 decree in which he put his decisions above any judicial challenge.

Others yet are calling upon the government to cancel a referendum next week on a controversial draft constitution, thought to be unrepresentative of the plurality of Egyptian society.

Hundreds of Mursi supporters were still in the area on Thursday morning holding several men in the street they refer to as "thugs". Some of the men were wounded.

Opposition groups called for more protests at the palace later on Thursday, setting the stage for further confrontation.

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