Deadly clashes as Egypt Islamists protest army coup

Supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi took to the streets in their tens of thousands Friday, defying the army that deposed him and triggering violence that killed at least 14 people nationwide. Gunfire was heard as Morsi supporters and opponents hurled rocks at each other on the October 6 bridge leading to Cairo's Tahrir Square, symbol of the 2011 revolt that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak. As the running battles raged late into the night, the death toll mounted, with two people killed near Tahrir, and the military told AFP it would deploy to separate the rival crowds. "We are not taking sides. Our mission is to secure the lives of protesters," said Colonel Ahmed Ali. "The military is going to intervene to separate the protesters."The clashes left six dead in Cairo, six more in the Sinai peninsula, one in second city Alexandria and another at Assiut in central Egypt, officials said. They came after the supreme guide of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, vowed members of the Islamist movement would stay on the streets in their millions until his presidency is restored. Badie appeared at Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque to screams of joy from jubilant supporters, following reports he had been detained after Wednesday's ouster of the president. "Millions will remain in the squares until we carry our elected president, Mohamed Morsi, on our shoulders," Badie told the crowd, before leading chants of "Military coup!" and "Invalid!"His impassioned speech came just three hours after at least three protesters were killed outside the Republican Guard headquarters after breaking away from the demonstration outside the mosque.  The bodies of two people were covered with sheets, said an AFP correspondent, adding that another protester was shot in the head. The health ministry gave the same toll, while the official MENA news agency said four were killed. The Islamists accuse the military of conducting a brazen coup against Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, after millions called for his ouster on the June 30 anniversary of his first turbulent year in power. The armed forces have already sworn in an interim president, however, and Adly Mansour issued his first decree on Friday, dissolving the Islamist-led parliament and appointing a new intelligence chief.Before Friday's rallies, around a dozen low-flying military jets screamed across Cairo, but the show of force failed to deter Morsi's supporters. Shots rang out after one supporter tried to hang a picture of the ousted leader on barbed wire outside the headquarters, said the AFP correspondent.  Despite being warned twice not to approach the building, the man did so, and members of the Guard started shooting. Bursts of gunfire were then heard from both sides, triggering panic, before security forces used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Morsi, who has not been seen since Wednesday, had issued a defiant call for supporters to protect his elected "legitimacy", in a recorded speech aired hours after his removal.The military had said it supported the right to peaceful protest, but warned against violence and acts of civil disobedience. Violence also gripped other parts of Egypt, including the Sinai where gunmen killed five policemen, and Islamists killed a soldier in a machinegun and rocket attack. On the eve of Friday's rallies, Mansour had called in a television interview for unity. "All I can say to the Egyptian people is to be one body. We had enough of division," he told Britain's Channel 4. Prominent liberal leader Mohamed ElBaradei defended the military's intervention, saying "the other option was a civil war. "We were between a rock and a hard place, and people need to understand that," the former UN nuclear watchdog chief told the BBC. Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced Morsi's overthrow on Wednesday night, citing his inability to end a deepening political crisis. Military police rounded up senior Brotherhood members, although two were later released. Morsi himself was "preventively detained", a senior officer told AFP. A judicial source said the prosecution would on Monday begin questioning Brotherhood members, including Morsi, for "insulting the judiciary". Morsi's rule was marked by accusations he concentrated power in the hands of the Brotherhood. His supporters argue Morsi was confronted at every turn with a hostile bureaucracy left over by Hosni Mubarak, overthrown in the Arab Spring-inspired uprising of 2011.