Egypt seeks end to crisis with quick elections

Egypt's interim rulers issued a faster than expected timetable for elections to drag the country out of crisis, a day after 51 people were killed when troops fired on a crowd supporting ousted President Mohamed Mursi.

The streets of Cairo were quiet on Tuesday morning but Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood movement called for more protests later in the day, raising the risk of further violence.

Under pressure to deliver a rapid timetable to restore democracy, Adli Mansour, the judge named head of state by the army when it brought down Mursi last week, decreed overnight that a parliamentary vote would be held in about six months. That would be followed by a presidential election.

The political stakes were raised by the bloodshed on Monday, the worst since Mursi was toppled by the military. The army opened fire outside Cairo's Republican Guard barracks where the deposed leader is believed to be held.

Officials said troops fired in response to an attack by armed assailants but the protesters disputed that account, insisting they were conducting peaceful dawn prayers.

"They shot us with teargas, birdshot, rubber bullets - everything. Then they used live bullets," said Abdelaziz Abdel Shakua, a bearded 30-year-old who was wounded in his right leg.

The bloodshed shocked Egyptians, already tired of the turbulence that began 2-1/2 years ago with the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising. However, many Egyptians seemed to accept the official account that the troops had come under attack and had fired back.

"Of course I condemn this: Egyptian versus Egyptian. But the people attacked the army, not the other way around," said Abdullah Abdel Rayal, 58, shopping in a street market in downtown Cairo on Tuesday morning.

On Friday, clashes between pro- and anti-Mursi supporters swept across Egyptian cities, killing 35 people.

The bloodshed has also raised alarm among key donors such as the United States and the European Union, as well as in Israel, with which Egypt has had a U.S.-backed peace treaty since 1979.

Millions of people took to the streets on June 30 to demand Mursi's resignation, fearing he was orchestrating a creeping Islamist takeover of the state.

To the Brotherhood, his removal amounted to the reversal of democracy a year after he became Egypt's first freely elected leader. Islamists fear a return to the suppression they endured for decades under autocratic rulers like Mubarak. Reuters