LATEST: Egypt — Pro-Morsi Crowds Take to Streets of Cairo
At least 42 people have been killed and more than 400 wounded by two car bombs outside mosques in Tripoli in northern Lebanon.
One Lebanese TV station, Al-Jadeed, is claiming at least 65 dead.
The moment of the blasts in the mosques:
Both bombs were detonated just after Friday Prayers. The first was near the al-Taqwa Mosque at 1.50 p.m., where Salafist Sheikh Salem al-Rafei, a staunch opponent of the Syrian regime, had delivered a sermon.
Rafei was unharmed.
Minutes later, a second bomb exploded near the as-Salam Mosque.
“I see seven bodies inside several burned cars,” said a witness at the Tahwa scene.
Dozens of cars were set on fire, and the streets were filled the bodies of wounded and dead. Nearby buildings were heavily damaged.
The site of one of the Tripoli bombings in front of the al-Salam mosque. The crater is in bottom left corner. pic.twitter.com/aTdOgJBLd9
— Ben Hubbard (@NYTBen) August 23, 2013
Near #Taqwq Mosque #Tripoli #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/SIqsZMA5ho
— Bassem Mroue (@bmroue) August 23, 2013
Tripoli was the site of deadly clashes between opponents and supporters of Syrian President Assad earlier this year, but had been relatively quiet in recent weeks, with attention shifting to car bombs in Beirut.
Egypt: Pro-Morsi Crowds Take to Streets of Cairo
The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville is tweeting photographs of pro-Morsi crowds as they gather and march through Cairo.
The protestors remain defiant in spite of the prospect of further violence by the army, as one man admits he is “scared they [the army] will shoot us.”
Aren't you scared that more people will be killed today I asked one protestor, he turns to the crowd, they all roar back "NO!"
— Quentin Sommerville (@sommervillebbc) August 23, 2013
Huge crowd now chanting "Raaba, Raaba" over and over. pic.twitter.com/vWWgqgL83j
— Quentin Sommerville (@sommervillebbc) August 23, 2013
"We aren't going to any squares, we are scared they will shoot us," says one man. But still they match on.
— Quentin Sommerville (@sommervillebbc) August 23, 2013
Wall Street Journal reporter Tamer El-Ghobashy:
"Rabaa! Rabaa!" "The army and police are one filthy hand!" #Egypt pic.twitter.com/HbQugRIdDo
— Tamer El-Ghobashy (@TamerELG) August 23, 2013
Egypt: Army Tightens Security Ahead of Planned Anti-Coup Marches
Security is being tightened in anticipation of planned pro-Morsi marches across Cairo today, in what anti-government groups are called the “Friday of Martyrs.”
Security forces have reinforced their presence at a number of prominent protest sites, including Rabaa El-Adawiya Mosque in Nasr City where pro-Morsi demonstrators held a sit-in for six weeks before being dispersed by the army.
The army and police have also increased their presence at the defence ministry, the Ittihadeya presidential palace in Heliopolis district and all entrances to Tahrir Square have been closed off.
Gam’et El-Dowal El-Arabiya Street, a main route in Mohandiseen district which intersects with the square where sit-ins were held at Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque, has also been closed off.
Egypt: 19 Muslim Brotherhood Members Arrested Thursday
Nineteen members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested yesterday, including the group’s official spokesman Ahmed Aref.
Among those arrested were Hassan El-Prince, former deputy governor of Alexandria, and Fathi Shehab, a former MP for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.
Also arrested were former MP Ahmed Abu-Baraka; Mostafa Taher Ghoneim, another member of the guidance bureau and a leader of the organisation for the Nile Delta region; Abdel-Moneim Mohamed Amin, a former head of the National Organisation for the Underground; Brotherhood official Mohamed Nagui; Professor Ashraf El-Tabei Ezzedine, president of Al-Azhar medical school in New Damietta; Abdel-Rahman Youssef was arrested in his hometown Suez.
Israeli Air Forces Hit Lebanese Site In Retaliation for Rocket Attack
Israel’s air force bombed a target south of the Lebanese capital Beirut early Friday morning, retaliating for four rockets fired from southern Lebanon at southern Israel earlier on Thursday.
An Israeli military source said the bombed site was near Naameh, between Beirut and Sidon, but did not provide further details.
A Palestinian group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), told Lebanon’s al-Manar TV that one of its bases had been struck, but there had been no dead or injured.
The PFLP-GC did not claim responsibility for the four rockets fired on Israel.
The rockets caused no casualties or damage, with the Israeli military claiming that at least three had not reached the ground, including one intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defence system.
The rockets were fired from Rashidiyah, a Palestinian refugee camp near the southern city of Tyre in Lebanon.
The Israeli military said a “global jihadist” group, and not the Lebanese organization Hezbollah, was responsible.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in summer 2006.