Egyptian army urges conciliation

EGYPT : Egypt's military appealed for conciliation and warned against revenge attacks, after it toppled President Mohamed Morsi, as police rounded up senior Islamists ahead of planned rallies by Morsi's supporters.

The military published the statement on its spokesman's Facebook page as scores were injured in clashes between the Islamist Morsi's supporters and opponents in the Nile Delta ahead of the planned rallies.

In the restive Sinai peninsula, a soldier was killed in an attack by Islamist militants early Friday, as gunmen ambushed several army and police positions with machine gun fire and rockets and attacked an airport.

The official MENA news agency said military Apache helicopters dispatched to pursue gunmen who attacked an airport in northern Sinai struck a militants' vehicle. It gave no further details.

Some militants in the peninsula had threatened a violent response after Morsi's ouster on Wednesday.

The military statement said it supported the right to peaceful protest, but warned that violence and civil disobedience acts such as blocking roads would “harm social peace.” The clashes in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya broke out hours after Chief Justice Adly Mansour, 67, was sworn in as interim president until new elections, at a ceremony broadcast live from the Supreme Constitutional Court.

The Islamists accuse the military of conducting a brazen coup against Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected but controversial president, following massive protests calling for the Islamist's ouster.

Morsi's Musim Brotherhood movement has called for peaceful protests on Friday against the “coup,” as police continue to hunt its leaders.

The military statement said “exceptional and autocratic measures against any political group” should be avoided, even as security forces rounded up top Muslim Brotherhood officials.

Police arrested the Brotherhood's supreme leader Mohammed Badie “for inciting the killing of protesters”, a security official told AFP.

Former supreme guide Mahdi Akef was also arrested, state television reported.

Morsi himself was “preventively detained” by the military, a senior officer had told AFP early Thursday, hours after his overthrow the night before, suggesting the ousted president might face trial.

In Cairo, anger gave way to gloom as thousands of the embattled Islamist movement's supporters rallied at a mosque, surrounded by the army.

“It's a soft military coup. The military was smart, using the cover of civilians,” said one, 26-year-old Ahmed al-Sayyed, in reference to the mass anti-Morsi protests.

AFP