Saudi King Abdullah pledged his country’s support to Egypt’s fight on “terrorism,” saying it was the military-backed government’s “legitimate right,” in a speech aired on official Al-Ekhbariya television Friday.
Saudi Arabia “has stood and stands with its Egyptian brothers against terrorism, deviance and sedition, and against those who try to interfere in Egypt’s internal affairs and its legitimate rights in deterring those tampering with and misleading” its people, he said.
As he made his remarks, with fresh violence erupting across Egypt, the Cairo regime said it was confronting a “malicious terror plot” by the Muslim Brotherhood.
At least 60 people were killed across Egypt on Friday, the health ministry said, in clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi, as of 9pm BDT when this report was taken from AFP.
The Brotherhood meanwhile said 25 people had been killed at one protest site alone, in Cairo’s Ramses Square.
That figure was confirmed by an eyewitness, who said he counted 25 bodies, some already wrapped in white sheets laid out inside in the Fath mosque in the square.
The health ministry said four people were killed in violence in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya and another eight in northern Damietta.
Security sources told AFP five protesters had been killed in clashes with security forces in Ismailiya.
And they said a police conscript was killed when gunmen attacked a checkpoint in the capital.
The violence came as Islamists marched in several cities around Egypt in what they dubbed a “Friday of anger” to protest the killing of hundreds of Morsi loyalists following a security crackdown on Wednesday.
According to the Associated Press, violence spread earlier, on Thursday, with government buildings set afire near the pyramids, policemen gunned down and scores of Christian churches attacked. As turmoil engulfed the country, the Interior Ministry authorised the use of deadly force against protesters targeting police and state institutions.
At least 638 people were confirmed killed from Thursday’s crackdown and nearly 4,000 wounded in the violence sparked when riot police backed by armoured vehicles, snipers and bulldozers smashed the two sit-ins in Cairo where According to a count by Dhaka Tribune’s international desk, the overall death toll in Egypt from the week reached at least 650.
