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An Egyptian woman talks to policemen from the inside of Cairo's Al-Fath mosque where Islamist supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi held up on August 17, 2013/AFP

Africa

Egypt Islamists vow new demos as crisis grows

Violence has also continued in the Sinai Peninsula, where militants carried out attacks overnight in the northern city of El Arish, killing a civilian, two soldiers and a policeman, security sources said.

The interim government has defended the crackdown. “We had to take measures to confront terror against the people,” foreign minister Nabil Fahmy said.

Hegazy insisted the security forces had acted with “a huge amount of self-restraint and self-control”.

State television has for days broadcast under a banner reading in English “Egypt fighting terrorism.”

The imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar, one of Sunni Islam’s key institutions, called for “all Egyptians to take part in reconciliation.”

But international criticism has mounted, with European Union leaders saying Sunday that they would review ties with Egypt’s army and government if the violence continues.

“The EU will urgently review in the coming days its relations with Egypt,” EU leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso said.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Saturday that he and his Qatari counterpart were “deeply distressed by the ongoing and brutal violence in Egypt.”

He urged the two sides to resume dialogue, citing the “danger of civil war.”

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Late Saturday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague called his Egyptian counterpart to express London’s “condemnation of all acts of violence, whether disproportionate use of force by the security forces or violent actions by some demonstrators.”

He also described as “unacceptable” a string of attacks against churches and Christian properties blamed on Morsi’s supporters.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged an end to violent protests and condemned “excessive use of force” in handling them.

The Vatican said Pope Francis was following events with “mounting concern.”

The United States has announced the cancellation of its biannual military exercise with Egypt, but stopped short of suspending $1.3 billion in annual aid.

The US embassy in Cairo stayed closed on Sunday, a working day in Egypt, citing the possibility of fresh demonstrations nearby.

But the international response has not been uniformly critical. Saudi Arabia and Jordan said they backed Egypt in its fight against “terrorism”.

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