Two people have been killed in clashes between supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi and security forces.
One person was killed and 20 others were wounded in Cairo, the health ministry said on Friday, the final day of campaigning for next week’s presidential election.
It said another person was killed and three more were wounded as Morsi supporters and police clashed in Fayoum, a town southwest of the capital, reported AFP news agency.
Morsi supporters also held brief protests in Cairo’s Nasr City, near the famed pyramids, in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and in the central province of Minya, security officials said.
Police fired tear gas in some areas to disperse the protests, held after Friday prayers.
Former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted Morsi last July, is expected to trounce his only rival, Hamdeen Sabbahi, in the presidential election to be held over Monday and Tuesday.
Armed group leader slain
Earlier on Friday Shadi al-Menei, the head of the Egyptian armed group Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, was killed along with other members overnight, Egyptian security sources said.
The sources said Menei was killed on Thursday while walking in Maghara in Sinai Peninsula, the Reuters news agency reported.
Earlier this month, Egypt’s prosecutor general charged 200 people with terrorism, accusing them of launching deadly attacks across the country, in the first mass trial of armed fighters since Morsi’s overthrow.
The prosecutor’s statement referred to Ansar Bait al-Maqdis as “the most dangerous terrorist group,” accusing the defendants of receiving military training in the Palestinian Gaza Strip under the patronage of Hamas.
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