REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CAIRO - Egypt's interim president held talks Saturday with the army chief and interior minister following an outburst of violence between supporters and opponents of ousted leader Mohammed Mursi that killed at least 36 people across the country and deepened the battle lines in the divided nation.
Three days after the military pushed out Mursi, Egypt's first democratically elected leader, the country appears to be careening toward further conflict and turmoil. Mursi's supporters have vowed to take to the streets until the toppled Islamist leader is reinstated, while his opponents have called for more mass rallies to defend what they call the "gains of June 30," a reference to the start of massive protests to call for the ouster of the president.
With both sides digging in, the country's acting president, Adly Mansour, met Saturday with army chief and Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as well as Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, at the Ittihadiya presidential palace.
It was the first time Mansour, a previously little known senior judge, has worked out of the president's main offices since he was sworn-in Thursday as the country's interim leader, a day after the military shunted Mursi aside after four days of the street protests that brought millions out into the streets.
Mansour also met Saturday with leaders of Tamrod, or Rebel, the youth movement that organized the mass anti-Mursi demonstrations, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Mansour was recently appointed by Mursi as chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, and was only sworn in as the chief justice minutes before he took the oath of office as president. He took the helm of a fiercely divided country.
Enraged by Mursi's overthrow, tens of thousands of the ousted president's supporters poured into the streets Friday, holding rallies that they have vowed to continue until the former leader is returned to office.
Late Friday, violence erupted in central Cairo as the rival camps clashed on a bridge over the Nile River. Gunfire crackled in the streets and flames leaped from a burning car. The chaotic scenes ended only after the army rushed in with armored vehicles to separate the warring groups.
The clashes had accelerated after the supreme leader of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, defiantly proclaimed his followers would not give up street action until the toppled president's return to office.
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