24 killed, hundreds injured in Egypt clashes

CAIRO - At least 24 people were killed and hundreds of others injured late Friday in clashes across Egypt amid the country's political and social turmoil after President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military on Wednesday.

In Cairo, a witness told Xinhua at least three people were killed and dozens injured outside the Republican Guards House, where Morsi is reportedly under house arrest, during clashes between security forces and Morsi's advocates.

Later in the evening, pro-Morsi protesters marching toward 6 October Bridge near Tahrir Square on their way to the state TV building clashed with Morsi's opponents celebrating his removal.

The state TV quoted anti-Morsi protesters as saying that at least two were killed and 70 injured in the clashes before police and army security forces with armored vehicles arrived at the scene and dispersed the protesters.

Meanwhile, a local security source told Xinhua five police officers were killed in North Sinai.

Earlier on Friday, hundreds of gunmen attacked Arish International Airport, a security camp in Rafah, a police station and two security checkpoints in Sheikh Zuwaid by heavy artillery and rocket-propelled grenades.

Tarek Khater, undersecretary of health ministry in North Sinai, told Xinhua that at least 20 were injured in clashes between Morsi's supporters and security forces outside the governorate headquarters in Arish.

According to reports from the official Middle East News Agency (MENA), 12 people were killed in Alexandria, one in Assiut and one in Suez while hundreds of others were injured in these areas.

The turmoil nationwide was sparked by the ouster of Islamist-oriented President Morsi by the military in response to millions of protesters who took to the streets and public squares across the country demanding his removal.

Islamist supporters of Morsi rejected the ouster as "a military coup" and demanded that Morsi be reinstated.

Similar clashes took place in Damietta, Fayoum, Beheira, Qena and other governorates across the country, injuring hundreds.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian security forces arrested several Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leaders and other Islamist figures on charges of inciting violence against anti-Morsi protesters.

On Friday evening, the police arrested MB's deputy chief Khairat al-Shater, following the nabbing of MB's official lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsood and former Salafist presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail.

Earlier reports had said that Mohamed Badei, the general guide of MB, was arrested, but the man delivered a speech to throngs of Morsi's advocates in Rabia al-Adawiya Square in Cairo on Friday evening, denying the news of his escape and arrest as "fake."

After Morsi's ouster, the army appointed Adli Mansour, head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, as interim president until a new one is elected.

Mansour on Friday dismantled the Islamist-dominated Shura Council, the country's upper house of parliament, in his first constitutional declaration as caretaker president.

He also issued presidential decrees appointing Mostafa Hegazi as his adviser for political affairs, Mohamed Raafat Shehata as adviser for security affairs, Ali Awad Saleh as adviser for constitutional affairs and Mohamed Ahmed Farid as chief of the general intelligence agency.