Egypt Sees Largest Clash Since Revolution

CAIRO—Tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt's president clashed Wednesday, hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails and brawling in Cairo's streets, in the largest violent battle between Islamists and their foes since the country's revolution early last year.

The confrontation started in the evening after Islamist protesters marching in support of President Mohammed Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, moved to break up a demonstration by the president's non-Islamist opponents outside the presidential palace in Cairo, where Mr. Morsi has his offices.

ENLARGE

An Egyptian protester on Wednesday in Cairo holds a placard reading in Arabic, "Morsi is not allowed in." European Pressphoto Agency

Protests Intensify in Cairo

Photos

The Egyptian army deployed tanks Thursday in Cairo. Nasser Nasser/Associated Press

Supporters of the rival camps, spurred by public defiance by influential figures on each side, waged back-and-forth battles in side streets outside the palace walls as night fell, shutting down major thoroughfares. Around midnight, police formed a barrier between the camps, with thousands of demonstrators on each side, as gunshots rang out and each side accused the other of firing live rounds.

Those allegations couldn't be confirmed. The Muslim Brotherhood said at least one of its supporters had been killed, while opposition officials said two of their supporters had died. An early Thursday report by state television quoted the Health Ministry as saying five people were killed and 446 people were injured, according to the Associated Press.

The Obama administration exhorted the sides to respect each other and refrain from bloodshed. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking in Brussels, called for a two-way dialogue. She also expressed dismay at the constitutional process, saying Egyptians "deserve a constitutional process that is open, transparent and fair and does not unduly favor one group over any other."

Also in Cairo, crowds besieged the Brotherhood headquarters in the al Moqatam neighborhood, ONTV said. Protesters also burned down a Brotherhood headquarters in the Suez Canal town of Ismailiya, Egyptian media reported.

The conflict between Islamists and their opponents has been behind some of the Middle East's bloodiest civil wars. Those who battled in the shadow of Cairo's presidential palace mirrored Egypt's secular-Islamist divide—with a crowd of mixed-gender and mainly young Egyptians, many in tight jeans and hipster haircuts, facing off against men in conservative dress shirts or robes and skullcaps.

Egypt's opposition was galvanized last month when Mr. Morsi issued a decree granting him nearly unrestricted powers and placing him above the judiciary. The decree paved the way for hurried approval of a constitution that was drafted by an Islamist-dominated body that the opposition says was working illegitimately and produced a charter weighted with Islamic law. The government has set a referendum on the draft for Dec. 15.

Anti-Morsi Egyptians took to the streets. On Tuesday, they marched on the presidential palace to denounce Mr. Morsi, the first time in recent memory that protesters made it to the palace walls. On Wednesday, Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam El-Eryan, speaking on al-Jazeera, called on millions of Egyptians to go to the presidential palace to "defend the state and its legitimacy."

Mohamed ElBaradei, one of the leaders of the opposition, countered on Wednesday that Mr. Morsi had lost all legitimacy. The president, he said, bears full responsibility for the current violence and is in danger of drawing Egypt into "something worse."

Speaking in a televised press conference, Mr. ElBaradei was flanked by Egypt's top opposition leaders, including ex-Arab League chief Amr Moussa and Hamdeen Sabahi, both former presidential candidates. It was a rare show of unity by Egypt's historically fractured opposition forces, and an indication of how far Mr. Morsi's decree had gone toward galvanizing his opposition, which was largely quiescent through the early months of Mr. Morsi's presidency.

"We will not enter any dialogue until the constitutional decree is rescinded and the constitutional referendum is postponed," said Mr. ElBaradei, adding that they will pursue "any means necessary" to restore democracy and dignity to Egypt.

A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Gehad al-Haddad, accused Mr. ElBaradei and other opposition leaders of inciting violence. He wouldn't rule out that Mr. Morsi could order their arrest on those grounds.

Egypt's public prosecutor, who was appointed by Mr. Morsi, on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations by a private citizen that Messrs. ElBaradei, Sabahi and Moussa, among other opposition leaders, were conspiring with Zionists to overthrow Mr. Morsi's government. The three didn't address the allegations.

At the palace early Thursday, police fired tear gas into a crowd that was divided by the newly erected cordon.

Many in the anti-Morsi camp complained the president had elevated himself to a dictatorial level, and accused the Muslim Brotherhood supporters who arrived Wednesday evening of inciting violence against peaceful protesters. Islam Hassan, a 26-year-old clothing-store manager, said he would stay at the site until Mr. Morsi rescinded his extraordinary powers.

On the other side of the cordon, a larger group of men who characterized themselves as Muslim Brotherhood supporters also said they would remain at the site. They characterized the anti-Morsi protesters as thugs paid by former regime insiders to bring down an elected leader.

"The problem is that these people could say no in the [Dec. 15 constitutional] referendum, but they don't want a referendum," said a Morsi supporter who identified himself as Ahmed Abdel Khaleq, a 29-year-old accountant. "They don't want a democracy."

Early Thursday, hundreds of pro-Morsi protesters had spread blankets on the hard pavement in front of the palace, preparing to spend a night in the rough to hold their territory. Members of the pro-Morsi crowd were also seen pummeling and dragging a man they characterized as an opposition thug.

The administration of Mr. Morsi, who hasn't appeared in public since he left the presidential palace after protesters descended on Tuesday, has sent out confused messages about how the conflict could be resolved. His vice president, Mahmoud Mekki, in remarks to reporters Wednesday, offered to sit down and negotiate with the opposition. He later said the proposal was his own, not a formal government offer. He said the referendum on the constitution would go forward as planned.

As the crisis deepened, three of Mr. Morsi's aides, tapped from outside the Muslim Brotherhood, quit in protest. "Egypt is bigger than a narrow-minded elite," one of the aides, Seif Abdel Fattah, told Egyptian television. He added that he could "no longer stay silent because the Muslim Brotherhood had harmed the nation and the revolution."

The aides who stepped down were popular among many of the young revolutionaries who led the early 2011 uprising against then-President Hosni Mubarak. They were tapped in part to fulfill one of Mr. Morsi's campaign pledges to recruit a broad and inclusive advisory team.

—Sam Dagher in Cairo
and Stephen Fidler in Brussels contributed to this article.

Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com and Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@dowjones.com