CAIRO
Minor clashes erupted Thursday between supporters and opponents of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in several governorates as the country celebrates the first day of Eid al-Fitr.
In the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya, three people were injured in scuffles that erupted when Morsi's loyalists held a march to demand the deposed leader's reinstatement.
Al-Sayed al-Atweel, a former lawmaker of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Anadolu Agency that the march was intercepted by anti-Morsi protesters who chanted against the deposed leader and started provoking the Brotherhood protesters.
However, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a member of the Constitution party which backed Morsi's ouster, said that the Brotherhood protesters are the ones who started the violence. "They [Brotherhood protesters] attacked the revolutionary youths and chanted slogans against [military chief] Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, leaving three youths injured," he said.
Also in Sharqiya, security sources said that four Brotherhood members were arrested after in connection with an acid attack that left two with burns following "a scuffle ignited by political differences".
Elsewhere in the Delta, a 12-year-old boy sustained burns when opponents of the ousted president hurled firecrackers at a march of pro-Morsi protesters in Damanhur, Beheira governorate, eyewitnesses said.
In the capital Cairo, the makeshift hospital in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, where thousands of Morsi's backers have camped out for more than five weeks, announced that a pro-Morsi protester was shot and injured near Ittihadiya presidential palace, the site of an anti-Morsi sit-in camp.
Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, was ousted by the powerful army on July 3 after mass protests against his regime.
Since then, thousands of his supporters have been staging daily rallies and sit-ins to defend his democratic legitimacy and demand his reinstatement.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
