Egypt Forces To Besiege Cairo Pro-Morsi Protesters

Egyptian security forces are preparing to besiegeĀ supporters of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi who are gathered in Cairo protestĀ camps.

Security sources told Al Jazeera that police would launch action against the
A senior security source told Reuters news agency earlier that the decision to take action came after a meeting between the interior minister and his aides.

ā€œState security troops will be deployed around the sit-ins by dawn as a start of procedures that will eventually lead to a dispersal,ā€ another source told Reuters.

Officials told theĀ AP news agency that they were preparing for possible clashes.

The pro-Morsi camps are the main flashpoints in the confrontationĀ between the army, which toppled Morsi, and the ousted presidentā€™s supporters who demandĀ his reinstatement.

ThousandsĀ rallied on Sunday to demand Morsiā€™s reinstatement, amid last-ditch efforts for reconciliation ahead of the threatened crackdown.

A large convoy of cars carrying pictures of the deposed president beeped their horns as they drove through a neighbourhood in east Cairo.

Hundreds of women marched in central Cairo against army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, shouting: ā€œSisi is a traitor, Sisi is a killer.ā€

Morsi loyalists have said that nothing short of the deposed presidentā€™s reinstatement would persuade them to disperse, despite several warnings by the interim leaders that the camps would be dismantled after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

In a sign of the mounting tensions, a brief overnight power cut at the main sit-in outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque struck panic among the pro-Morsi demonstrators, with some taking to social media to announce that an assault had begun.

The main coalition of Morsi supporters, the Anti-Coup Alliance, said 10 marches would be held in various parts of the capital on Sunday ā€œto defend the electoral legitimacyā€ of Egyptā€™s first freely elected president. [AlJazeera]