CAIRO (AP) – A series of demonstrations and small bombings marked the anniversary on Thursday of the ouster of Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi, and authorities responded by arresting nearly 200 people as part of their crackdown against Islamists.
One of the bombs went off accidentally inside an apartment outside Cairo, killing two suspected militants who were handling the explosives, the Interior Ministry said. It said the men were in the apartment with two friends who fled after the blast in the Islamist stronghold of Kirdasah.
A security official said one Morsi supporter was killed during clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo’s twin city Giza. Late Thursday, a homemade bomb went off on a train in Egypt’s second city, Alexandria, injuring five passengers, another official said. The bomb was placed in a suitcase under a chair- in a rare incident of directly targeting civilians.
Morsi’s supporters had called for mass protests a year after he was toppled by the military and detained, but the number of demonstrators during the day was mostly in the hundreds, sometimes just dozens – evidence of the reluctance by Islamists to take on the security forces after a months-long crackdown that has killed hundreds and jailed at least 22,000.
Thursday’s demonstrations took place in Cairo, Alexandria, Assiut, the oasis province of Fayoum southwest of the capital and several other provinces.