Cairo - AFP
Two people were killed in clashes on Friday between protesters and police in the Egyptian city of Fayoum, security officials said, in the latest Islamist demonstrations against the military-installed regime. Supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi have pressed a protest campaign since his overthrow last July, despite an extensive crackdown that has killed more than 1,400 people and imprisoned thousands. One of the two killed on Friday, a 52-year-old man, was suffocated by tear gas during the clashes in Fayoum province southwest of Cairo. The other fatality was a woman, but the officials did not say how she died. Protests are expected to continue as Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the ex-army chief who toppled Morsi, stands in a late May presidential election he is expected to win. Sisi is widely backed by Egyptians who want a restoration of stability, but Morsi supporters consider him the mastermind of a coup against the country's first freely elected president. Morsi's overthrow also unleashed a widening militant campaign that has killed about 500 people, mostly members of the security forces.