Egyptian Army Kills Three in Clash with Pro-Morsi Protesters
The AFP reports that at least three people were killed when the Egyptian army opened fire on protestors demonstrating in favor of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi outside the barracks where he's being held.
(According to a military spokesman, army soldiers didn't fire on the protesters but used blank rounds and tear gas.)
According to the AP, the forces opened fire when the crowd approached the barbed wire fence around the barracks:
An Associated Press photographer at the scene Friday says the Republic Guard forces opened fire when protesters approached a barbed wire barrier around the facility and hung a picture of Morsi on it.
BBC reporter Jeremy Bown, who was at the demonstration, says that the protestors were "disciplined" and "hotheads" were "under control." According to his account, relayed by ABC's Jon Williams, the "[a]rmy leveled guns and opened fire without warning."
Earlier today, armed attackers stormed the el-Arish airport near the Gaza border, resulting in one death, and the military is said to have declared a state of emergency in the Suez and south Sinai.
Morsi, a moderate Islamist who was elected president just over a year ago, was removed from power by the army on Wednesday and arrested the following day, alongside other prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, after widespread protests against the organization and Morsi's regime. In response, pro-Morsi demonstrators numbering in the hundreds of thousands have gathered around Egypt