Heavy gunfire rang out Friday throughout Cairo as tens of thousands of supporters of Egypt's ousted president clashed with armed vigilantes in the fiercest street battles to engulf the capital since the country's Arab Spring uprising. At least 64 people were killed in the fighting nationwide, including police officers.
Egypt is bracing for more violence after the Muslim Brotherhood called for nationwide marches after Friday prayers and a "day of rage" to denounce this week's unprecedented bloodshed in the security forces' assault on the supporters of the country's ousted Islamist president that left more than 600 dead.
President Barack Obama on Thursday canceled joint U.S.-Egypt military exercises, saying America's traditional cooperation with Egypt "cannot continue as usual" while violence and instability deepen in the strategically important nation.
Egypt's interior minister says 43 policemen have been killed in clashes with supporters of the ousted Islamist president. That raises the overall death toll for today to nearly 200.
Cairo's emblematic Tahrir Square and nearby approaches to the River Nile are largely empty and debris-strewn today and Egypt remains on edge after deadly slashes between supporters and opponents of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.