CAIRO: Thousands of supporters of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood stood their ground outside a Cairo mosque Sunday a day after at least 72 were gunned down by security forces, braced for a move against them by the army chief behind the overthrow of Islamist President Mohammad Morsi.

 

With tensions high after what Morsi supporters called a “massacre” Saturday, the country’s National Defense Council warned of security forces would take “decisive and firm action” if protesters overstepped their rights.

 

General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi made his first appearance since Saturday’s bloodshed, smiling before television cameras at a police graduation ceremony, recruits decked out in white uniforms.

 

He received a standing ovation and was hailed by Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim as “Egypt’s devoted son.” Fawning coverage in state and private media reflected Sisi’s rising political star, in a country ruled by former military officers for six decades before Morsi’s election in 2012.

 

Saturday’s dawn killings, following a day of rival mass rallies, triggered global anxiety that the Arab world’s most populous and influential country risked broader conflagration.

 

The Brotherhood accuses the military of turning back the clock on the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, and demands that Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, be reinstated.

 

Morsi has been in military detention since his July 3 overthrow and the military-backed interim government has placed him under investigation on charges including murder. Authorities also say they will move soon to clear the Brotherhood’s tent vigil.

 

“It’s a source of terrorism that’s threatening the whole society, and that’s being confirmed by the day,” Mostafa Hegazy, adviser to interim President Adly Mansour, told reporters.

 

Army vehicles surrounded entrances to the square outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque in northern Cairo Sunday, where Brotherhood supporters used pictures of the bearded Morsi to shelter from the fierce sun.

 

“We are right, legitimacy is on our side and hopefully at the end God will lead us to triumph and we will not give up,” said Mostafa Ali, 29, from the Nile delta town of Mansoura.

 

The Interior Ministry has rejected eyewitness accounts that police opened fire on the crowds and a public prosecutor has launched a probe into the violence, investigating 72 suspects for an array of crimes including murder and blocking streets.

 

Cairo was quiet Sunday, but violent clashes rattled the Suez Canal city of Port Said, where a 17-year-old youth was killed in fighting between pro- and anti-Morsi camps and a further 29 people were injured, security sources said.

 

The violence has polarized Egypt, with its secular and liberal elite showing little sympathy for the Brotherhood or reservations about the military’s return to the political front-line.

 

Speaking to Reuters, interim Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said deepening divisions would lead to “more tragedies.” He blamed the Brotherhood for the violence, but said they should be part of the country’s political future.

 

“If they decide to withdraw from politics, it will be disappointing, if they decide to pursue violence, then you are looking at a completely different confrontation,” Fahmy said.

 

Egyptian officials said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was due to arrive in Cairo and would meet a number of political leaders, including Fahmy, Monday.

 

In a first sign of doubt from within the interim Cabinet installed after the military takeover, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Ziad Bahaeddine said the government must not copy the “oppressive” policies of its foes. “Excessive force is not permitted,” Bahaeddine wrote on Facebook.

 

The Tamarod youth protest movement, which mobilized millions of people against Morsi and has fully backed the army, also expressed alarm at an announcement by Interior Minister Ibrahim that he was reviving Mubarak’s hated secret political police.

 

The military says it does not want to retain power and aims to hand over to full civilian rule with a “road map” to parliamentary elections in about six months. But the very public role of Sisi as the face of the new order has sowed doubt.

 

The United States, which gives more than $1 billion a year in military aid to Egypt, urged its Middle East ally to pull “back from the brink” and respect the right to peaceful protest.

 

Close to 300 people have died in violence since Sisi deposed Morsi. The National Defense Council – comprising the interim president and heads of the security forces – said it was committed to freedom of expression and protest, providing they were peaceful. It urged Morsi supporters to “stop practicing violence and terrorism.”The council called on protesters “not to exceed their rights to peaceful, responsible expression of their opinions,” or they would face “decisive and firm decisions and actions in response to any violations.”

 

Besides the Cairo bloodshed, some of the worst violence has been in the lawless Sinai peninsula, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, where Islamist militants have targeted security forces on an almost daily basis.

 

State news agency MENA said Sunday that 10 “terrorist elements” in north Sinai had been killed and 20 others arrested in security sweeps over the past 48 hours.

 

Islamist politician and former presidential candidate Mohammad Selim al-Awa offered a compromise that would see Morsi reinstated but with new elections within months. It was swiftly rejected by the interim presidency and Egypt’s biggest liberal and leftist coalition, the National Salvation Front.