At least 30 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured in the latest clashes between supporters and opponents of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
Fierce clashes broke out yesterday when Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood called people to protests called "Friday of Rejection" across Egypt and tried to break into the military facility where the army is holding Morsi.
The heaviest clashes were in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, where 14 people died and 200 were wounded. In central Cairo, supporters and opponents of Morsi fought late into the night with stones, knives, firebombs and batons until the army separated them with armored personnel carriers.
The center of Cairo has been tense since early morning today. Morsi's opponents spent the night in Tahrir Square, and civilians set up checkpoints.
The bridge leading to Cairo University, where Morsi's supporters are camping, is covered in stones and burnt tires. Rifle fire was heard throughout the capital tonight.
Several hundred Islamist supporters of Mohamed Morsi marched toward national television on the banks of the Nile River in downtown Cairo tonight. Witnesses say they crossed the Nile bridge near Tahrir Square, where Morsi's opponents are.
There are soldiers with armored vehicles near the Square. The army said it intended to keep the rival factions apart, and the Islamists crossed the bridge and gathered in front of the television headquarters, Reuters reported.
Earlier today, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Mohamed Badie, attended protests in Cairo, the movement's political wing said in a statement.
Egyptian security forces said Badie was arrested on Thursday on orders from prosecutors following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but the movement later denied his arrest, Reuters reported.
Badie told a protest by thousands of Islamist supporters of Morsi near a mosque in the suburbs of Cairo that he was ready to reach an agreement with the armed forces, but only after Morsi was returned to the office of president. "We will stay in the squares until we return Morsi to power," he said.
Badie called on the army not to fire on its own people, as a military helicopter flew over the crowd of protesters and said the protesters were stronger than tanks. "Our chests are stronger than bullets," Badie added.
On Wednesday, after several days of anti-government protests in which dozens of people died, the Egyptian army suspended the Constitution, dismissed Morsi, then arrested Morsi and announced the holding of early presidential elections.
The president of the Constitutional Court, Adli Mansour, was appointed as the interim president of Egypt, who today dissolved the upper house of the Egyptian parliament, which was dominated by Islamists.
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