Pro-democracy protester killed in Alexandria clashes

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt

A pro-democracy protester was killed on Thursday in clashes with police in the northern Egyptian province of Alexandria, sources said.

A source with the pro-democracy National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy said that Mohamed al-Selwani, a son of a provincial leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in the coastal city, was killed when police forces fired live ammunition and birdshot to disperse a protest in Gianaclis neighborhood.

A security source, however, accused members from the "terrorist" Brotherhood group of being behind the killing.

"Security forces stepped in to disperse the march after protesters engaged in clashes with opponents of the Brotherhood and blocked roads," the sources, who requested anonymity, told Anadolu Agency.

Last December, Egypt's military-backed interim government designated the 86-year-old Islamist group a "terrorist organizations," blaming it for a string of deadly bombings which the group had repeatedly denied any links to.

Egyptian authorities have launched a massive crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood following the army's July 3 ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood leader himself.

Thousands of the Brotherhood's leaders and members have since been arrested on incitement-to-violence charges, which they dismiss as politically motivated.

englishnews@aa.com.tr