Egyptians gathered in the streets Saturday to take part in what turned out to be in many cases deadly demonstrations on the third anniversary of the uprising that resulted in the removal of the nation's former president Hosni Mubarak.
Seven protesters were killed during clashes with security forces, Haaretz reported, including two people in Minya, located in upper Egypt, one in Giza and two more in Cairo and Alexandria.
According to Voice of America (VOA), police fired tear gas at the masses in an effort to disperse anti-government demonstrators, who took to the street a day after a series of explosions killed six policemen in Cairo. The Sinai-based Islamist militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis has claimed responsibility for the bombings.
"The timing is a message that the third anniversary of the revolution will not be a celebration; they want to color it with blood," Moataz Abdel-Fattah, a political scientist at the American University of Cairo, told The New York Times of Friday's bombings. "And it will only darken the political waters, with more people calling for a hard-line stance against the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters."
Explosions Saturday included one near a police facility in Suez and another near a police academy in Cairo, although no casualties were reported, VOA said.
The Obama administration has condemned the Friday attacks, using the event once again to stress its disapproval of Egypt's current military-led government.
"We made very clear from the secretary on down our very, very serious concerns about the way the military took power," said Marie Harf, State Department's deputy spokeswoman, The Wall Street Journal reported.
