Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi has engineered another dangerous confrontation with the military council that holds most of the power in the country.
On Sunday, he fired the nation’s two top generals, including Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi who heads up the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) — the organization that has run Egypt since the fall of Mubarak.
Egypt’s Islamist president ordered his defense minister and chief of staff to retire on Sunday and canceled the military-declared constitutional amendments that gave top generals wide powers.
It was not immediately clear whether the decision had the military’s blessing. Morsi has been in a power struggle with the military since he came to power on June 30. Shortly before he was announced the winner of elections, the ruling military council that took power after Hosni Mubarak‘s ouster stripped the presidency of many of its key powers.
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Afternoon Updates:
4:07 pm EDT, August 13th, 2012 — Middle East Chaos Makes Israeli Iran Strike More Likely
4:12 pm EDT, August 13th, 2012 — IMF expected to demand that Egypt devalues on currency: former FM
