国际英语新闻:Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Calls for More Rallies After Bloodshed

A top Islamic cleric delivered a Friday prayer sermon on state TV, calling on all Egyptians to eschew violence and for political leaders to sit down at the negotiating table:

He warned Egyptians against sectarian strife and asked them to refrain from bloodshed and of  the taking of innocent lives.

Egyptian state media warned people to stay off the streets in Cairo as an operation to confront what it calls "terrorist elements" unfolds. Witnesses reported hearing crackles of gunfire in several areas of Cairo.

Arab satellite channels reported that at least a dozen police stations were attacked and police and army conscripts were killed in Cairo and several provincial cities.

Heba Morayef, an official with Human Rights Watch, said that the use of live ammunition by police was not acceptable and urged forces to use restraint.

Morayef urged police to take a number of steps to forestall further violence, especially against churches and Egypt's Christian minority, which were reportedly targeted this week by Brotherhood mobs.

“The other thing we want to see from the police is effective intervention to protect churches because over the last few days more than 30 churches were attacked around the country. And that is a clear obligation on the part of the police. They could have predicted that this would happen, that there would be a sectarian backlash in particular after weeks of sectarian discourse on the part of the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters from the two sit-ins,” he said.

An Egyptian satellite channel showed images of a church in Cairo's Shubra district being torched Friday evening, after a government curfew was to have gone into effect. There were no indications that the unrest would subside despite the curfew.