Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt's Islamist president Muhammad Morsi held rival sit-ins in separate parts of Cairo Saturday on the eve of opposition-led mass protests aimed at forcing him from power, the Associated Press reported.
The demonstrations follow days of deadly clashes in a string of cities across Egypt at least seven people dead, including an American, and hundreds injured. The violence has been rampant leading up to Sunday's expected rallies that the opposition says will bring millions into the streets.
Egypt has been roiled by political unrest in the two years since uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The turmoil has compounded the country's social and economic woes, with crime surging, unemployment high and with shortages of basic items.
Cairo, which saw large pro- and anti-Morsi rallies on Friday, was uncharacteristically quiet Saturday despite the sit-ins as the city braced for more potentially violent opposition protests. Many residents are thought to be staying home, while some left for safer locations elsewhere in the country to avoid possible violence.
For several days, members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the president's opponents, many secularists who ousted Mubarak from power in February, 2011, have clashed in cities in the Nile Delta. On Friday as least five Brotherhood offices across the country were ransacked and torched.
