Cairo, July 5: The shooting came when hundreds of Mr. Morsy's supporters marched on the Republican Guard building, where Mr. Morsy was staying at the time of his ouster.
Troops opened fire on supporters of Mr. Morsy who were marching on a headquarters of the Republican Guard on Friday, as tens of thousands chanting “down with military rule” protested around the country voting to return the Islamist leader to office.
The shooting came when hundreds of Mr. Morsy's supporters marched on the Guard building, where Mr. Morsy was staying at the time of his ouster, before being taken into military custody in an unknown location. The crowd approached a barbed wire barrier where troops were standing guard around the building.
When one supporter hung a sign of Mr. Morsy on the barrier, the troops tore it down and told the crowd to stay back. A protester hung a second sign and the soldiers opened fire on the crowd, an Associated Press photographer at the scene said. Several protesters fell bloodied to the ground. At least one had what appeared to be a severe, bleeding wound to the head.
The shooting risks to escalate Egypt's confrontation, with supporters of Mr. Morsy largely Islamists rejecting the Army's ousting of the country's first freely elected President on Wednesday night and installation of a new civilian administration. The protester casualties are likely to further fuel calls by some in the Islamist movement for violent retaliation.
The first major Islamic militant attack came before dawn on Friday in the tumultuous Sinai Peninsula, killing at least one soldier. Masked assailants launched a coordinated attack with rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns on the airport in el-Arish, the provincial capital of northern Sinai, as well as a security forces camp in Rafah on the border with Gaza and five other military and police posts, sparking nearly four hours of clashes.
The Brotherhood called for Friday's protests, which took place at several sites around the capital and in other cities. Brotherhood officials underlined strongly to their followers that their rallies should be peaceful.
A crowd of tens of thousands of Morsy supporters filled much of a broad boulevard outside a Cairo mosque several blocks away from the Republican Guard headquarters, vowing to remain in place until Mr. Morsy is restored. The protesters railed against what they called the return of the regime of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, ousted in early 2011.
“The old regime has come back... worse than before,” said Ismail Abdel-Mohsen, an 18-year old student among the crowds outside the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque. He dismissed the new interim head of state sworn in a day earlier, senior judge Adly Mansour, as “the military puppet.”
The crowd began to march on the headquarters of the Republican Guard, many chanting, “After sunset, President Morsy will be back in the palace.”
