Egypt's interim president has
given the prime minister the power to grant the military the right to arrest
civilians after a weekend of violence between supporters of the country's
deposed leader and security forces.
Government officials say the
decision could be a prelude to a major crackdown on Mohammed Morsi's supporters
or militants who have stepped up attacks against security forces in the Sinai
Peninsula.
Adly Mansour's decree was
published in the government's official gazette Sunday.
On another note, thousands of
supporters of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood stood their ground in Cairo on Sunday,
saying they would not leave the streets despite "massacres" by
security forces who shot dozens of them dead.
Mursi's Brotherhood, which won repeated
elections after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, accuses the
military of reversing the uprising that brought democracy to Egypt and demands
his reinstatement.
The Interior Ministry has rejected
eyewitness accounts that police opened fire on the crowds and a public
prosecutor has launched a probe into the violence, investigating 72 suspects
for an array of crimes including murder and blocking streets.
Although Cairo was quiet on Sunday, violent
clashes rattled the Suez Canal city of Port Said, with a 17-year-old youth
killed in fighting between the pro- and anti-Mursi camps and a further 29
people injured, security sources said.
In the international reactions to the events taking place in Egypt, the United States urged Arab ally
Egypt to pull "back from the brink" after security forces killed
dozens of supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and opened a
dangerous new phase in the army's confrontation with his Muslim Brotherhood.
Thousands of Brotherhood
supporters were hunkered down in a vigil at a Cairo mosque on Sunday, vowing to
stand their ground despite the imminent threat of a move to disperse them.
Saturday's bloodshed, following
huge rival rallies, plunged the Arab world's most populous country deeper into
turmoil following two turbulent years of transition to democracy with the fall
of veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Egypt's Health Ministry said 65
people had died. The Brotherhood said another 61 were on life support after
what it described as a ferocious dawn assault by men in helmets and black
police fatigues. The ambulance service put the death toll at 72.
Bodies wrapped in white sheets
were laid on the floor of a Brotherhood morgue, their names scrawled on the
shrouds.
Washington, treading a fine line
with an important Middle East ally and recipient of over $1 billion in military
aid, urged the Egyptian security forces to respect the right to peaceful
protest.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
spoke by telephone with Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who
led the July 3 military overthrow of Morsi and whose face has appeared on
posters across the teeming capital, Cairo.
US Secretary of State John Kerry
spoke to two senior members of Egypt's army-installed interim cabinet,
expressing his "deep concern."
"This is a pivotal moment
for Egypt," he said in a statement. "The United States ... calls on
all of Egypt's leaders across the political spectrum to act immediately to help
their country take a step back from the brink."
Over 200 people have died in
violence since Sisi deposed Morsi on the back of huge popular protests against
his rule, ending a one-year experiment in government by the Muslim Brotherhood
after decades spent in the shadows under successive Egyptian strongmen.
In Sinai, Egyptian security and armed forces killed 10 “terrorists”
and arrested twenty others within the last 48 hours in northern Sinai, a top
security sources told the Middle East News Agency.
REUTERS/AP