CAIRO
Supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi staged rallies on Friday to denounce what they call the "military coup" against Egypt's elected leader.
Pro-Morsi marches set out from mosques in the Cairo suburbs of Ain Shams, Abbassiya, Helwan and Shubra.
Chanting slogans against the military, protesters also demonstrated following Friday prayers in Cairo's upscale Mohandiseen district and Omraniya in Giza.
Protesters waved Egyptian flags and banners bearing the images of demonstrators killed in the violence which has gripped the country since Morsi's ouster early last month.
Demonstrators also carried the "four-fingered salute" sign, the "Rabaa sign," to commemorate the hundreds of people killed in last week's violent dispersal of a pro-Morsi protest camp in eastern Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square.
Pro-Morsi demonstrations were also staged in the northern city of Alexandria and in the canal city of Ismailia.
Morsi, Egypt's first democratically-elected president, was ousted by the powerful military on July 3 following mass protests against his regime.
The unconstitutional change of government is described by supporters of the Islamist president as a "military coup," while his opponents describe it as a military-backed popular uprising.
Friday's rallies were called for by the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy, a coalition of largely Islamist parties and figures supportive of Morsi.
In a Thursday statement, the alliance said the marches would be part of a series of scheduled demonstrations on what it has dubbed "Martyrs Friday."
"There are no plans for sit-ins or assemblies in any of the major squares so far," Magdi Salem, a senior alliance figure, told Anadolu Agency.
"We remain committed to peaceful protests."
englishnews@aa.com.tr
