Thousands of pro- and anti-Islamist protesters clash in Egypt

PanARMENIAN.Net - Supporters and opponents of Egypt's Islamist president battled in the streets near Tahrir Square on Friday, April 19 as an Islamist rally demanding a purge of the judiciary devolved into violence, AP reported.

The rally centered on a contentious aspect of the country's deep political polarization - the courts. Islamist backers of President Mohammed Morsi say the judiciary is infused with former regime loyalists who are blocking his policies, while opponents fear Islamists want to take over the courts and get rid of secular-minded judges to consolidate the Muslim Brotherhood's power. Thousands of Morsi supporters - mostly backers of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist hard-liners - held rallies Friday outside the High Court building in Cairo and in the coastal city of Alexandria, demanding the "cleansing of the judiciary."

As some Islamists moved toward Cairo's Tahrir Square, they were met by anti-Morsi youth a few blocks from the square, some of them in black masks. It was not clear who started the clashes, but it led to both sides pelting each other with stones and firing gunshots. One bus was seen set on fire. The sound of birdshot cracked through the air in the clashes, and tear gas was fired - even though there were no police nearby.

Some of the masked youths and Islamists were seen with homemade pistols. Others wielded iron bars and tree branches and broke up street pavements to throw the chunks of asphalt and concrete. More than 80 people were injured, according to the state news agency MENA.