Pro-Morsi protesters hit streets out of 'loyalty to martyrs'

Sizeable marches launched after Friday prayers to once again call for a restoration of 'legitimacy' in the face of a 'coup' against deposed president Mohamed Morsi

Islamist protest marches were launched after afternoon prayers in Cairo and other cities on Friday, under the banner of "loyalty to the martyrs' blood," with supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi once against demonstrating against what they describe as a military coup.
The demonstrations come in the wake of a call by leading Muslim Brotherhood figure Essam El-Erian for supporters to hit the streets on Friday, Saturday and beyond in order to “continue the revolution.”
The call was broadcasted late on Thursday by Al Jazeera Mubashar Misr, a satellite channel widely seen as favouring the Muslim Brotherhood.
"We need to be loyal to the blood of the martyrs," said El-Erian in the broadcasted message. El-Erian is one of the few leading Brotherhood figures who has not been arrested by security forces since Morsi's ouster, although there is a warrant out for his arrest.
"We won't surrender to the blunt force of the security state," he said in the message.
Police and armed forces have closed a number of squares and major streets to prevent protesters from getting through or occupying public spaces to stage sit-ins. In Cairo, the Rabaa Al-Adawiya area in Nasr City district was blocked off, as was Mohandiseen's Gamat Al-Dowal Street and Sphinx Square. All three locations have seen protests by supporters of Morsi in recent weeks.
Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the 2011 uprising, has also been blocked off by security forces.
Demonstrators at the protests, who numbered in the thousands across the nation, chanted against the armed forces and called for the restoration of "legitimacy." Many of them held aloft pictures showing the yellow four-fingered symbol of the protest camp at Rabaa Al-Adawiya which was violently dispersed in August, as well as posters showing Morsi.
Protests also took place in cities outside the capital, including Menoufiya in the Nile Delta, Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, where a verbal exchange erupted between protesters and supporters of the current government near Qaed Ibrahim Mosque before protesters retreated from the area, reportedly being chased away.
There were also protests reported in the delta governorate of Qalioubiya and Suez.
Many clashes have erupted between Islamist protesters and their opponents, mainly security forces, since the ouster of Morsi on 3 July amid nationwide protests against him. In mid-August, the interim authorities forcibly evicted demonstrators at two protest camps in the capital, leaving hundreds dead and sparking a wave of violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces.
The Brotherhood's ability to mobilise has been affected by a recent wave of arrests targeting the group's leadership. Recent Friday protests have seen a reduced turnout, but demonstrators at the larger demonstrations still typically number in the thousands.
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