Egyptian security forces on Monday were yet to launch planned operations to disperse Islamist supporters of deposed President Mohammad Mursi that officials had said would start at dawn.
The camps at Rabaa al-Adawiya and Ennahda square have been the sites of confrontation between the army, which toppled Islamist President Mursi last month, and supporters who demand his reinstatement.
The army have been urged by several Western and Arab mediators and some senior Egyptian government officials not to forcibly disperse the protesters, who at times can number as much as tens of thousands.
“State security troops will be deployed around the sit-ins by dawn as a start of procedures that will eventually lead to a dispersal,” a senior security source said on Sunday, adding that the first step will be to surround the camps.
Hardline military officers have put pressure on army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to move against the protesters, security sources told Reuters.
The decision to act on Monday, just after Eid al-Fitr celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan, came after a meeting between the interior minister and his aides, another security source said.
“The first step towards ending the sit-ins will start at dawn when protesters will be surrounded,” a government official told the news agency.
Confrontations between security forces and protesters have led to almost 300 people being killed since the ouster, including dozens of Mursi supporters shot dead by security forces in two incidents.
Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement on Sunday condemning any plans by “coup makers” to interfere with their right to protest and calling on international rights groups to visit their camps to see how peaceful they were.
(With Reuters)