Coup Underway in Egypt, Morsi Adviser Says (UPDATED)

UPDATE: According to reports, Morsi has been officially removed as president.

A top adviser to embattled Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said Wednesday that a coup had begun after the Muslim Brotherhood leader again stood firm against military demands that he resign. There are fears now that “considerable bloodshed” could ensue as a result.

“In this day and age, no military coup can succeed in the face of sizable popular force without considerable bloodshed,” Essam al-Haddad, a top aide to Morsi, wrote on his office’s official Facebook page after a late afternoon deadline passed. “There are still people in Egypt who believe in their right to make a democratic choice. Hundreds of thousands of them have gathered in support of democracy and the Presidency. And they will not leave in the face of this attack. To move them, there will have to be violence.”

The Washington Post:

Dozens of armored vehicles were deployed at eastern Cairo’s Rabaa Adawiya Mosque and outside Cairo University, where hundreds of thousands of Morsi supporters gathered. The president’s supporters and opponents were waiting to see whether Egypt’s powerful army would take action, as promised, once its deadline for Morsi and his opponents to forge a political agreement had expired.

…There were unconfirmed reports, meanwhile, that Morsi and the top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that constitutes the president’s main base of support, were being banned from travel.

Two top Brotherhood officials reached by phone on Wednesday dismissed rumors that Morsi and his aides had been put under house arrest or barred from leaving the country. “This is not true. This is all empty talk,” said Abdullah Shehata, a prominent Brotherhood member. “Everything is fine.”

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