Supporters of Mursi hold up his portrait and shout slogans yesterday as they continue to hold a sit-in outside Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque.

 

AFP/Cairo

Egypt’s army chief called yesterday for rallies to back a crackdown on “terrorism and violence”, in comments Islamists denounced as a call to “civil war” ahead of their own protests.

With tensions already running high three weeks after the military ousted president Mohamed Mursi, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s call for demonstrations raises the prospect of further deadly violence.

The US, which has close ties to the Egyptian military, said it was “very concerned” by Sisi’s call and decided to suspend a plan to supply the country with F-16 warplanes.

Sisi made his unprecedented move in a speech broadcast live on state television.

“Next Friday, all honourable Egyptians must take to the street to give me a mandate and command to end terrorism and violence,” said the general, wearing dark sunglasses as he addressed a military graduation ceremony near Alexandria.

A spokesman for army-installed interim president Adly Mansour later said Egypt “has begun a war on terrorism”.

Sisi’s call for protests was aimed at “preserving the state”, said spokesman Ahmed al-Muslimani, in comments carried by the official Mena news agency.

A coalition of Islamists led by Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood said it would press ahead with its own rallies tomorrow.

“Sisi’s threats are an announcement of civil war,” the group said, while warning of the danger of “massacres committed under a false popular cover”.

Nearly 170 people have died in political unrest since the end of June, many of them in clashes between Mursi’s supporters and opponents.

Huge crowds of Egyptians protested against Mursi on June 30, after just one turbulent year of his presidency.

Sisi claimed he had been told by Mursi aides that removing the president would result in violence.

The aides “told me if there is any problem there will be lots of violence because of armed groups, to scare me”, Sisi said in his speech.

His address came just hours after a police conscript died when a time bomb exploded outside a police station in Mansura in the Nile Delta, state television and the interior ministry said.

After Sisi’s speech, security sources said gunmen killed two soldiers in separate attacks in the Sinai Peninsula, where militants have launched daily attacks on security forces since Mursi’s overthrow.

At least three militants also died in the Sinai when their booby-trapped car apparently exploded before they reached their intended target, said Mena.

Senior Brotherhood leader Essam al-Erian said Mursi loyalists would not be intimidated by the army chief’s call for mass rallies.

“Your threat will not prevent millions from continuously protesting,” Erian wrote on Facebook.

He was referring to demonstrations by Mursi’s supporters which have continued non-stop since the military ousted the Islamist leader on July 3 and placed him in custody.

Tamarod, the movement that spearheaded the mass anti-Mursi rallies that led up to the coup, called on supporters to take to the streets again tomorrow to support the army.

“We call on the great Egyptian people to rally on Friday across Egypt to demand... Mursi’s trial and to support the military in its upcoming war on terrorism.”

The US has joined other Western nations in calling for Mursi’s release, although it has declined to characterise his overthrow as a coup, which would force a suspension of US aid.

But the Pentagon said Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel yesterday informed Sisi of the US decision to delay the planned delivery of an additional four F-16 jets to Egypt.

“Given the current situation in Egypt we do not believe it is appropriate to move forward at this time with the delivery of F-16s,” spokesman George Little told reporters.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington was “very concerned about the calls” made by Sisi for protests.