CAIRO: Islamic militants on Monday ambushed two mini-buses carrying off-duty policemen in the northern region of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing 25 of them execution-style in a brazen daylight attack that deepens the turmoil roiling the country and underscores the volatility of the strategic region.

The killings, which took place near the border town of Rafah, came a day after 36 detainees were killed in clashes with security forces. In all, nearly 1,000 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi since last Wednesday.

Tensions between the sides have been high since the army ousted Morsi in a July 3 coup, following days of protests by millions of Egyptians demanding the Islamist president leave and accusing him of abusing his powers.

But Morsi’s supporters have fought back, staging demonstrations demanding that he be reinstated and denouncing the military coup.

On Wednesday, the military raided two protest camps of Morsi’s supporters in Cairo, killing hundreds of people and triggering the current wave of violence.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the country’s military chief, said Sunday that the crackdown, followed by a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew imposed in Cairo and several other flashpoint provinces, is needed to protect the country from “civil war.” El-Sissi has vowed the military would stand firm in the face of the rising violence but also called for the inclusion of Islamists in the post-Morsi political process.

Sinai, a strategic region bordering the Gaza Strip and Israel, has been witnessing almost daily attacks since Morsi’s ouster — leading many to link the militants there to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which Morsi hails.

Egyptian military and security forces have been engaged in a long-running battle against militants in the northern half of the peninsula.

Al-Qaida-linked fighters, some of whom consider Morsi’s Brotherhood to be too moderate, and tribesmen have used the area for smuggling and other criminal activity for years and have on occasion fired rockets into Israel and staged cross-border attacks. A year ago, 16 Egyptian border guards, a branch of the army, were slain in Sinai near the borders with Gaza and Israel in a yet unresolved attack that is widely blamed on militants.

In Monday’s attack, the militants forced the two vehicles to stop, ordered the policemen out and forced them to lie on the ground before shooting them, the officials said. The policemen were in civilian clothes, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which also left two policemen wounded.

Egypt declared a month-long state of emergency beginning at 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET), according to state television.

The violence began with Egyptian security forces storming the two massive makeshift camps filled with supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsy, bulldozing tents and escorting away hundreds of protesters.

Chaos ensued. Many protesters refused to leave, even in the face of bulldozers and surrounded by the injured and dead. “They said they’re prepared to die,” CNN’s Reza Sayah reported from Cairo.

Ninety-five people have been killed and more than 500 have been wounded in Cairo and other parts of Egypt, state TV reported, citing the Health Ministry.

The Muslim Brotherhood — Morsy’s party — said earlier that 200 Morsy supporters were killed and more than 8,000 were injured. But the party has given exaggerated figures in the past, only to revise them later.

Sky News cameraman Mick Deane was killed, the UK-based news channel reported. Deane had worked for Sky for 15 years. The rest of the team was unhurt.

“I have personally never seen this much bloodshed in what, according to what we’ve seen over the past six weeks, had been a peaceful demonstration,” Sayah said. Visiting makeshift hospitals, a CNN crew was “literally walking on the blood of the victims.”

One man who appeared bloodied told CNN his friends were killed.

The fighting wasn’t limited to Cairo. Morsy supporters besieged various churches in Sohag, setting fire to Saint George’s Church, a tour bus and a police car, Egypt’s state-run EgyNews reported.

Interior Ministry sources told CNN that Muslim Brotherhood supporters also attacked three police stations around Egypt.

The operation began shortly after dawn when security forces surrounded the sprawling Rabaa al-Adawiya camp in east Cairo and a similar one at Al-Nahda square, in the centre of the capital.

Witnesses and an AFP correspondent said police rained canisters of tear gas down onto tents before entering Rabaa al-Adawiya, sparking pandemonium among the thousands of protesters who set up the camp soon after Morsi was ousted by the army on July 3.

Men in gas masks rushed to grab each canister and dunk them in containers of water, as the main stage near the mosque of the camp blared Islamic anthems and protesters chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest.)

Clashes quickly erupted between protesters and security forces on one side of the camp, as automatic fire could be heard. It was not immediately clear who was doing the shooting.

Television footage showed injured people being carried to a makeshift medical centre as well as police dragging away protesters, who have defied numerous ultimatums to end their demonstrations.

Protest leaders wearing gas masks stood defiantly on a stage while crowds of people wearing face masks stood amid the swirling tear gas as bulldozers began dismantling the camp.

Egypt´s interior ministry mid-morning said security forces have “total control” over Al-Nahda Square, the smaller of the two camps.

“Police forces have managed to remove most of the tents in the square,” the ministry said.

A security official told AFP that dozens of Morsi supporters had been arrested with the help of residents of the area.

Television footage showed protesters who had been rounded up sitting in the ground handcuffed and surrounded by security forces.

Families, with their children, carrying plastic bags were seen being escorted out of the square by police.

Railway authorities announced that all trains had been grounded to prevent protesters from moving outside of Cairo and reassembling.

Morsi´s Muslim Brotherhood urged Egyptians to take to the streets in their thousands to denounce the “massacre”.

“This is not an attempt to disperse, but a bloody attempt to crush all voices of opposition to the military coup,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad al-Haddad said on Twitter.

The Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp, where several Brotherhood leaders are staying, “is calling on Egyptians to take to the streets to stop the massacre,” Haddad said.

In a separate tweet, Haddad said at least 250 people were killed and over 5,000 injured in the crackdown. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the tolls.

An AFP correspondent counted 43 bodies at a makeshift morgue at Rabaa al-Adawiya, adding that many appeared to have died from gunshot wounds.

There were no women or children among the dead, the correspondent said.

Police barred journalists not already in the camp from entering.

Egypt´s interior ministry said two members of the security forces were killed in the operation.

The crackdown came just hours after the United States urged the military-backed interim government to allow Morsi supporters to protest freely.

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Washington regarded freedom to protest as a “key part” of the democratic process but would be concerned by reports of violence.

The United States, which provides $1.5 billion in mostly military aid to Egypt every year, maintains close ties to the Egyptian military but says it favours a rapid return to elected civilian rule.

Morsi, Egypt´s first elected president, was overthrown by the military on July 3 with popular backing.

His supporters had said nothing short of his reinstatement would persuade them to disperse.

Clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators and security forces have killed more than 250 people since the end of June.

On Monday, the judiciary extended Morsi´s detention for a further 15 days pending an investigation into his collaboration with Palestinian group Hamas.

The Muslim Brotherhood, banned in 1954 and repressed by successive governments, won both parliamentary and presidential elections in 2011 after the ouster of veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

Prosecutors have set an August 25 date for the trial of the Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie and his two deputies.

CAIRO: The death toll from weekend clashes between supporters of Egypt’s ousted president and security forces backed by armed civilians in Cairo has risen to 72, the deadliest single outbreak of violence since the army deposed the Islamist Mohammed Morsi in a July 3 coup, a health ministry official said on Sunday.

Khaled el-Khateeb, head of the ministry’s emergency and intensive care department, said another eight died in clashes in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

A total of 792 people were wounded in both incidents, which spanned Friday and early Saturday.

The Cairo violence took place when pro-Morsi protesters sought to expand their sit-in camp by moving onto a nearby main boulevard, only to be confronted by police and armed civilians.

Authorities concede that the vast majority of the dead in Cairo were demonstrators, but the Interior Ministry says some policemen were wounded and it is not clear if civilians who sided with police were among the dead.

The extent of the bloodshed pointed to a rapidly building confrontation between the country’s two camps, sharply divided over the coup that removed Egypt’s first freely elected president following protests by millions of Egyptians demanding he step down.

Authorities talk more boldly of making a move to end weeks of protests by Morsi’s Islamist supporters. At the same time, the Islamists are growing more assertive in challenging security forces as they try to win public backing for their cause.

Officials from Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and their allies decried what they called a new “massacre” against their side, only weeks after July 8 clashes with army troops in Cairo that left more than 50 Morsi supporters dead.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that he spoke to Egyptian authorities, saying it is “essential” they respect the right to peaceful protest. He called on all sides to enter a “meaningful political dialogue” to “help their country take a step back from the brink.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also asked security forces to “act with full respect for human rights” and demonstrators to “exercise restraint.”

CAIRO: A promise of $12 billion in aid from wealthy Arab Gulf nations would give Egypt’s new military-backed leadership breathing room by paying for vital food and fuel imports. But the benefits would be only temporary, because Egypt’s broken economy remains unrepaired.

More than two years of political turmoil, violence and deterioration in security have frightened away tourists and foreign investors. Just as harmful, badly structured subsidies on food and fuel eat up almost a third of Egypt’s strained budget.

The most recent round of violence, when more than 50 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi died in clashes with the military on Monday, is likely to ripple through the economy, spreading doubts over the new leadership’s ability to provide stability.

A key demand among millions of people who demonstrated against Morsi was better living conditions. Little improved when he took office a year ago, after poverty, rampant corruption and crony capitalism propelled millions to join the youth-led uprising against President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Morsi inherited critical economic problems, and the economy deteriorated further under his one-year rule. The Egyptian currency lost more than 10 percent of its value against the dollar this year, unemployment rose to 13 percent and his government relied on handouts from sympathetic neighboring countries to survive.

This reinforced the impression that Morsi was incapable of governing, according to economic rights expert Amr Adly.

Now Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, longtime critics of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, are stepping up to back his replacements.

The $12 billion in aid, a mix of grants, cash deposits and oil and gas products, will likely be used by the incoming government to try to avert another gas and electricity shortage like the one just before Morsi’s ouster nearly two weeks ago.

On Wednesday, Kuwait announced its offer of $4 billion — a $2 billion cash deposit, a $1 billion grant and $1 billion worth of oil products.

A day before, the UAE announced its $3 billion aid package to Egypt, $1 billion of which is a grant and $2 billion of which is a no-interest loan.

Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia weighed in with the largest aid package — $5 billion, made up of $2 billion to be deposited in Egypt’s central bank, $2 billion worth of oil and gas and $1 billion as a grant.

The $7 billion flowing directly into Egypt’s central bank is needed to keep foreign reserves from plunging further, after the bank warned they had already reached a “critical level.” Reserves stood at just $14.9 billion at the end of last month, less than half of what they were before the political upheaval that began in 2011.

The changes also mean that the tiny but influential Gulf state of Qatar has been sidelined after it showered Morsi’s government with around $8 billion in aid over the course of the past year. Qatar is a key backer of the Brotherhood in the region.

Ashraf Swelam, an economist and senior advisor to former presidential candidate Amr Moussa, warned that the billions of dollars in assistance may help Egypt stay afloat for only about six months. That’s when parliamentary elections are scheduled, according to a timetable drawn up by the interim president.

CAIRO: Egyptian soldiers and police opened fire on supporters of the ousted president early Monday in violence that left at least 40 people killed, including one officer, outside a military building in Cairo where demonstrators had been holding a sit-in, government officials and witnesses said.

There were conflicting accounts of how the violence began. A military spokesman said gunmen attempted to storm the building at dawn, prompting the clashes. Supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, meanwhile, said the security forces fired on hundreds of protesters as they performed early morning prayers. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the two accounts.

In chaotic scenes from field hospitals treating the wounded, at least six dead bodies had been laid out on the ground, some with severe wounds, according to footage aired by pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera. The bodies had been draped with an Egyptian flag and pictures of Morsi. Pools of blood covered the floor and doctors struggled to deal with gaping wounds.

A medic from the area, Hesham Agami, said ambulances were unable to transport more than 200 wounded to hospitals because the military had blocked off the roads.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled el-Khatib said initial reports also indicated at least 322 were wounded, although he gave no details on the circumstances of the bloodshed.

Military spokesmen said gunmen opened fire on troops at the building, killing at least five Morsi supporters and one officer.

A spokesman for Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, Mourad Ali, and a witness at the scene said army troops opened fire at dawn on the protesters outside the Republican Guard building, where the protesters believe Morsi has been held by the army since the military pushed him from power on Wednesday. Morsi was initially held there but was later moved to an undisclosed Defense Ministry facility.

Al-Shaimaa Younes, who was at the sit-in, said military troops and police forces opened fire on the protesters during early morning prayers, and that women and children had been among the demonstrators.

“They opened fire with live ammunition and lobbed tear gas,” she said by telephone. “There was panic and people started running. I saw people fall.”

Egyptian state TV showed images provided by the military of the scene of the sit-in, where scores of protesters were pelting troops with rocks, and setting tires on fire, as troops dressed in riot gear and carrying shields formed lines a few meters (yards) away.

.”Egyptian army soldiers take their positions near armored vehicles to guard the entrances of Tahrir s …

A fire was raging from an apartment in a building overlooking the scene of the clashes. Images showed men throwing spears at the area of the clashes from atop nearby building rooftops. Other protesters were lobbing fire bombs at the troops. It was not clear when the footage was filmed. Security officers were showing cameras bullet casings, and troops were carrying injured colleagues.

Military spokesman Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said initial information indicates that gunmen affiliated with the Brotherhood tried to storm the Republican Guard building shortly after dawn, firing live ammunition and throwing firebombs from a nearby mosque and rooftops. One police officer on the scene was killed, he said.

A statement by the armed forces published on the state news agency said “an armed terrorist group” tried to storm the Republican Guard building, killing one officer and seriously wounding six. The statement said the forces arrested 200 attackers, armed with guns and ammunition.

Ali, the Brotherhood spokesman, dismissed the military’s version, saying the protesters — including women and children — didn’t attack the troops. He said the military had warned protesters it will break up the sit-in.

Morsi supporters have been holding rallies and a sit-in outside the Republican Guard building since the military deposed Morsi last week during massive protests against him. The military chief replaced Morsi with an interim president until presidential elections are held. The transition plan is backed by liberal and secular opponents of Morsi, and had been also supported by the ultraconservative Islamist Al-Nour party and both Muslim and Christian religious leaders.

Egyptian army soldiers take their positions near armored vehicles to guard the entrances of Tahrir s …
Soon after the attack report, however, Al-Nour party spokesman Nader Bakkar said on his Twitter account his party is withdrawing its support for the transition plan in response to the “massacre.”

Morsi’s supporters refuse to recognize the change in leadership and insist Morsi be reinstated, and have vowed to continue their sit-ins outside the Republican Guard building as well as at a nearby mosque.

Morsi’s opponents are also holding rival rallies. They say the former president lost his legitimacy by mismanaging the country and not ruling democratically, leading to a mass revolt that began June 30, the first anniversary of Morsi’s assumption of power.

CAIRO: At least 26 people were killed in clashes across Egypt on Friday as tens of thousands of supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi turned out to protest his ouster by a popularly backed military coup.

A coalition of Islamist groups including Morsi´s Muslim Brotherhood vowed further “peaceful” protests in a statement early Saturday, demanding the military restore the country´s first democratically elected leader.

In the restive north of the Sinai peninsula, armed Morsi supporters stormed the provincial headquarters in the town of El-Arish after a gunfight and raised the black banner of Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants, an AFP correspondent said.

At least 12 people were killed in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria as Morsi´s supporters and opponents fought a pitched street battle, the official MENA news agency said.

Police continued to round up top Islamists, announcing the arrest of Khairat al-Shater, widely seen as the most powerful man behind Morsi in the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

A spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon quoted him calling for a peaceful end to the crisis. “There is no place for retribution or for the exclusion of any major party or community”.

In Cairo´s iconic Tahrir Square, at least two people were killed when Morsi supporters traded fire with his opponents, state television reported.

The clashes subsided when the army separated the protesters using armoured vehicles.

CAIRO: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood called for a wave of protests Friday, furious over the military’s ouster of its president and arrest of its revered leader and other top figures, underlining the touchy issue of what role the fundamentalist Islamist movement might play in the new regime.

There are concerns of Islamist violence in retaliation for Mohammed Morsi’s ouster, and some former militant extremists have vowed to fight.

Suspected Islamic militants opened fire at four sites in northern Sinai, targeting two military checkpoints, a police station and el-Arish airport, where military aircraft are stationed, security officials said. The military and security responded to the attacks, and one soldier was killed and three were wounded, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

The question of the role of the Brotherhood has long been at the heart of democracy efforts in Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak, ousted in 2011, and previous authoritarian regimes banned the group. After Mubarak’s fall, the newly legalized group vaulted to power in elections, and its veteran member Morsi become the country’s first freely elected president.

Now the group is reeling under a huge backlash from a public that says the Brotherhood and its Islamist allies abused their electoral mandate. The military forced Morsi out Wednesday after millions of Egyptians turned out in four days of protests.

CAIRO: The top judge of Egypt’s Constitutional Court, Adly Mahmud Mansour, has been sworn in as interim leader, hours after the army ousted President Mohammed Morsi and put him under house arrest.

Mr Mansour praised the armed forces and the Egyptian people, saying the era of “worship of the ruler” should end.

Mr Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, is under house arrest after what he says was a military coup.

The army said he had “failed to meet the demands of the people”.

The upheaval comes after days of mass rallies against the Islamist president.

Protesters accused Mr Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of pursuing an Islamist agenda for the country and of failing to tackle Egypt’s economic problems.

Some 50 people have died since the latest unrest began on Sunday.

Mr Mansour was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court only four days ago, and was sworn in to that office on Thursday morning, before being sworn in as interim head of state.

CAIRO: Egypt´s army ousted and detained Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday after a week of deadly clashes and mass protests calling for him to go after a year in office.

His defence minister, armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, announced Morsi´s overthrow on state television, even as police began rounding up key Morsi aides and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Warrants have been issued for the arrest of a total of 300 Brotherhood officials, state media reported.

The news that Morsi had been forced out drew a rapturous reception from thousands of protesters camped out on the streets of Cairo for days, some of whom celebrated with fireworks.

But at least seven of Morsi´s supporters were killed in clashes with security forces in Alexandria and the eastern city of Marsa Matrouh, security officials said.

Already this last week, at least 50 people have died in clashes between the Islamist´s supporters and opponents in the days leading to his ouster.

Morsi and his senior aides were placed “under house arrest” in a military facility, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member told AFP.

The ousted president was later taken to the defence ministry, Gehad El-Haddad added. His father, Essam El-Haddad, a senior Morsi aide, is one of those detained.

Morsi issued a defiant call for his supporters to defend his elected “legitimacy” in a prerecorded speech that appeared online after Sisi´s statement.

Thousands of his supporters remained camped out in northern Cairo, but Egyptian television stations stopped broadcasting live feeds of the pro-Morsi rally after the military announced his overthrow.

US President Barak Obama said he was “deeply concerned” over Morsi´s ouster and called on the army to refrain to “arbitrary arrests” of Morsi and his supporters.

In May, Washington approved $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt. That was now under review, said Obama, as he called for a swift return to democratic rule.

Police also began arresting leaders of Morsi´s Muslim Brotherhood movement, an interior ministry general told AFP. Saad al-Katatni, head of Morsi´s Freedom and Justice Party was already in custody , he added.

In his speech, Sisi laid out details of the roadmap for a political transition.

The Islamist-drafted constitution would be frozen and presidential elections held early, he said, without specifying when.

The armed forces, which had deployed troops and armour across the country, would “remain far away from politics,” he stressed.

In the streets of Cairo, the response was immediate.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital to celebrate, cheering, whistling, letting off firecrackers and honking car horns in several hours of celebrations.

“It´s a new historical moment. We got rid of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood,” said one celebrator, Omar Sherif.

In an amateur video posted online, Morsi declared: “I am the elected president of Egypt” and urged people to “defend this legitimacy”.

Earlier, Morsi´s national security adviser Essam al-Haddad, said on Facebook: “For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let´s call what is happening by its real name: military coup.”

But the opposition Congress Party of Amr Mussa insisted “this is not a coup”.

“Consultations will start from now, for a government and reconciliation,” said the former Arab League chief, who last year ran unsuccessfully against Morsi for the presidency.

Morsi, Egypt´s first freely elected president, came under massive pressure in the run-up to Sunday´s anniversary of his maiden year in office.

His opponents accused him of failing the 2011 revolution by concentrating power in the hands of his Muslim Brotherhood.

His year in power was marked by a spiralling economic crisis, shortages in fuel and often deadly opposition protests.

The embattled 61-year-old had proposed a “consensus government” as a way out of the crisis, the worst since the 2011 uprising that ended three decades of authoritarian rule by Hosni Mubarak.

But it failed to satisfy his critics and the army stepped in.

Its commander named the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly al-Mansour, as interim leader of the Arab world´s most populous country.

Mansour, a previously little known judge, is expected to be sworn in on Thursday.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, sat beside army chief Sisi as he announced on state television that Morsi´s rule was over.

So too did the heads of the Coptic Church and Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam´s highest seat of learning.

The choreography was designed to show broad civilian support for the military´s move against Morsi.

It was a heavy blow to Morsi´s supporters, who a year ago saw his election as president one of the key achievements of the 2011 revolution.

Already, the security forces had shut down broadcasts from a Muslim Brotherhood television channel, a Morsi aide told AFP.

Staff of Al-Jazeera´s Egyptian affiliate were also arrested after the channel aired a defiant speech by the deposed president, the station reported.

Dozens of armoured personnel carriers headed towards Islamist gatherings around Cairo to head off trouble.

But in Cairo´s Tahrir Square, the security forces looked on as tens of thousands of anti-Morsi protesters celebrated, dwarfing the pro-Morsi rally in Nasr City, on the opposite side of the capital.

The crowd swelled at nightfall, after a scorching day that saw police officers hand out water to the demonstrators in Tahrir Square, epicentre of the 2011 uprising.