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Mursi loyalists defy govt calls

agence france-presse Cairo, 8 August Thousands of supporters of Egypt’s ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi today celebrated Id ul-Fitr, the…

agence france-presse
Cairo, 8 August
Thousands of supporters of Egypt’s ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi today celebrated Id ul-Fitr, the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, defying government calls for them to leave the streets.
However there was no immediate sign that the government was readying to carry out its threat made yesterday to remove Islamist protest camps set up to demand Mr Mursi’s reinstatement following his ouster by the army on 3 July.
Under a cloud of balloons, thousands of men, women and children attended the dawn prayer marking the end of the fasting month in the Rabaa al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda Squares, where Mursi’s supporters have been camped for weeks calling for his reinstatement. Egypt’s army-installed government vowed yesterday to remove the protest camps, saying it had refrained from doing so out of “solicitude for the holy month of Ramzan”.
But leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood from which Mr Mursi hails called for rallies “until victory”, raising fears of further bloody confrontations. Giving warning of the looming showdown, government daily Al-Gumhuriya today ran the headlines “Last warning” and “The hour of battle approaches”.
Several thousand supporters of the ousted president also marched in other parts of Egypt, including in Alexandria, the country’s second city, and in Qena in the south. The warning to the protesters came after Egypt’s interim presidency said yesterday that Western and Arab efforts to mediate an end to the country’s political deadlock had failed.
US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns left Cairo on Tuesday without making headway in finding a compromise between the government and Morsi’s supporters. “These efforts have not achieved the hoped for results,” the presidency said, referring to mediation by Mr Burns, who was among a string of diplomats who had travelled to Cairo.
Mursi&’s wife: Naglaa Mahmoud, the wife of Mohammed Mursi addressed thousands of his supporters at a protest camp in Cairo, where she vowed: “He is coming back, God willing.” She made her first appearance today since the military coup, which followed mass rallies demanding her husband’s removal from office.

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