Vigilantes Emerge As Menacing Force In Egypt As Mosque Siege Ends
CAIRO — The siege at a Cairo mosque Saturday highlighted the specter of Egypt spiraling into civil strife and factional bloodshed among the army, Islamists and bands of vigilantes who are emerging as a dangerous third force in the nation's turmoil.
That troubling prospect was evident even as imams from Egypt's top religious institution late in the day succeeded in ending the standoff at Al Fatih mosque, where hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and anti-military protesters had hunkered as mobs cursed them from the streets amid the rattle of automatic weapons fire.
Clerics from Al Azhar — Sunni Islam's most revered university, although distrusted by the Brotherhood — hurried through tear gas Saturday and entered the mosque in Ramses Square. Shortly after nightfall, the Interior Ministry announced the standoff was over as the last of the protesters, some of whom were arrested, exited under police protection.
Brotherhood supporters had taken cover inside the building during deadly clashes a day earlier. They turned the mosque into a makeshift field hospital and refused to leave, fearing attacks from security forces and vigilantes. Egyptian media reported that police fired at the minaret Saturday after gunmen shot at them.
"The government seeks reconciliation but not with those whose hands have been stained with blood and who have defiled the law," said interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi. His comments came as police arrested more than 1,000 Islamists, including Mohammed Zawahiri, a radical cleric and brother of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri.
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http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-egypt-vigilantes-20130818,0,7825353.story
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