LATEST: Egypt — Anti-Regime Protests Limited, 6 Dead in Clashes

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Egypt’s anti-regime protesters have called for mass rallies on Friday, a week after a disappointing turnout for their challenge to the July 3 coup that toppled President Mohamed Morsi.

Groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, the main force behind the Morsi Government, have vowed to “Reclaim the Revolution” in rallies today.

Two weeks ago, there was mass demonstrations protesting the deaths of more than 700 people — mainly in raids by security forces on pro-Morsi sit-ins — two days earlier. Those marches led to further clashes, with scores more killed.

Since then, the regime has continued to imprison senior opposition figures, including Brotherhood leaders, possibly affecting the mobilization and co-ordination of protests. On Thursday, Mohamed El Beltagy, the General Secretary of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, and Brotherhood official Khaled al-Azhari were arrested.

Egyptian media estimate that more than 3,000 people have been detained since the July 3 coup.

(Featured Photo: Rally for ousted President Mohamed Morsi, August 2, 2013)

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Egypt: Anti-Regime Protests Limited, 6 Dead in Clashes

Thousands of anti-regime protesters marched through Cairo and cities across Egypt on Friday.

The demonstrations were the largest since hundreds of protesters were killed two weeks ago.

Most marches passed without major incident, but a security source said there were at least six dead and 50 injured and live television pictures showed tear gas and burning tyres in Cairo.

In the capital, thousands marches in calls for the return of the Morsi Government, and some remained outside the Presidential Palace until just before the 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) curfew.

In Egypt’s second city, Alexandria, a total of more than 10,000 protesters took part in several separate demonstrations. Marches were also held in several cities in the Nile Delta including Tanta, in the three Suez Canal cities of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said, and in the southern city of Assiut.

Egypt Pictures: Anti-Regime Marches on Friday

Large demonstrations beyond Cairo challenging the military and interim Government:

Lebanon: 2 Clerics, 2 Syrians Indicted Over Tripoli Car Bomb Attacks

Two members of the Islamic Unification Movement and a Syrian army official have been indicted for plotting the car bomb attacks that killed at least 42 people outside mosques in the northern city of Tripoli last week.

Sheikhs Hashem Menqara and Ahmad al-Gharib, alongside Lebanese national Mustafa Houri, have been charged with forming an armed gang and a terrorist cell along with planting explosive devices and car bombs.

Syrian army captain Mohammad Ali and another Syrian national, Khoder al-Arban, have both been charged with murder and planting car bombs.

The leader of the Islamic Unification Movement, Sheikh Menqara, has also been indicted for withholding information about the attacks from the authorities.

Yemen: US Drone Strike Kills Five People

A US drone strike in Yemen’s Al-byda province killed five people early this morning.

Farea Ali-muslimi reports that among those killed was Qaed Al-thahab, a member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and brother-in-law of Anwar al-Awlaki, a leading American-Yemeni Al Qaeda figure, killed by a drone strike in September 2011.

The other four people are currently unknown.

Egypt: Two Killed in Cairo Drive-By Shooting

A policeman and a civilian have been killed in a drive-by shooting in Cairo’s Heliopolis district this morning, according to state TV.

Unknown gunmen in two cars opened fire on a police unit in El-Nozha neighbourhood, injuring another policeman.

The attack comes two days after a security checkpoint was shot at by unknown assailants from a rooftop in Giza’s Mohandessin district. Three suspects were later arrested.

Egypt: Two Militants Killed in Sinai Peninsula

Security forces killed two militants yesterday in near the city of Al-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula.

Nine others were arrested and military sources claim that they also seized a large amount of automatic weapons.

Iraq: Islamic State of Iraq & Levant Claim Wednesday Bomb Attacks

The Islamist militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant issued a statement on Friday morning claiming responsibility for the wave of attacks on Wednesday that killed at least 86 people across the country.

The group claimed that the attacks, the worst since August 10, were retribution for the execution of 17 Islamists on August 19 convicted of terror-related offences.

The statement, posted to jihadist internet forums, read “The new wave organised by the lions of the Sunni people… was a response to the crimes of the Safavid government with the executions of a group of Islamists from the Sunni people in Iraq.”

It added, “The operations were carried out despite the heavy presence of security forces, who placed tens of thousands of their donkeys and their animals just in Baghdad and around Baghdad, which as become a big, closed prison for its residents.”

Although most of Wednesday’s attacks took place in busy streets and marketplaces, the group described the targets as “official and security and military places, and the places of the Rafidhiyah and the head of the Safavids.”

The references to “Rafidhiyah” and “Safavids” are derogatory terms for Shiite Muslims; the attacks in Baghdad took place in the largely Shia populated Sadr City.