CAIRO _ At least 43 people, including two soldiers, were killed and hundreds more injured Monday when supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi clashed with the Egyptian military, the deadliest single incident since Morsi was forced to step down.
The army and the Muslim Brotherhood offered two different versions of events, but the confrontation threatened to upend the already fragile transitional government. The Nour Party, the only Islamist representatives in the government assembled by the military last week, resigned to protest the violence and there were calls for Adly Mansour, the appointed transitional president, to resign.
Reaction in the streets of Cairo underscored the emotions here and the likelihood of protracted conflict among Islamists, the militarily imposed government, and the people who back it.
"Kill them all. Why can't they accept that we don't want them!" screamed a fruit vendor, Mohammed, as he watched television news accounts of what took place.
The violence broke out at around 4 a.m., and both sides blamed the other for the eruption of gunfire, Molotov cocktails and fireworks launched close to the ground. Both sides claimed to have video to buttress their version of events.
Supporters of Morsi, who have been staging a sit-in in the eastern Cairo district of Rabaa since June 28, said the armed forces began attacking them as they were praying in an effort to clear the area. State television said the clashes began when Morsi backers attacked troops at the nearby Republican Guard officers' club, where some believe Morsi is being held.
Witnesses said the fighting began with tear gas followed by gunfire.
Either way, the political and physical landscape here had been marred. Rivers of blood flowed near the scene and there were items such as eyeglasses, shoes and clothes left behind by fleeing protesters. The area smelled of blood.
A McClatchy reporter saw bullet holes in the nearby mosque, which was filled with Morsi supporters. The mosque was locked, and many feared leaving.
Ahmed Abdullah, 40, was among those injured, struck with rubber bullets in the leg. Standing outside the mosque, Abdullah said he tried to go to the hospital but an ambulance worker warned him: "If I take you, the police will arrest you."



"The officer was laughing while shooting at me and others as if he were hunting for birds," said Abdullah, an oil worker who remained at the mosque, afraid to get treatment.
State television displayed videos zeroing in on attackers shooting at the army and wounded soldiers being carried away.
The military said in a statement that "terrorist groups" tried to storm the Republican Guard headquarters and military personnel protected the entrance. The military said that it had arrested 200 protesters and that dozens of its soldiers were injured, six critically. The Ministry of Defense announced a press conference for 2:30 p.m. local time (8:30 a.m. EDT).
Doctors treating the wounded at the Medical Insurance clinic in Nasr City, a government-run facility, called it "a massacre," saying most of their patients had been wounded in the head, neck and chest. Posted at the entrance to the clinic was a growing list of the dead and injured as people searched for the names of loved ones. Emotions ran high as scores of relatives wailed, read the Quran and fought one another in a state of frustration. Overwhelmed doctors said there was not enough room to treat all the wounded.
"The injures in the head were severe. I saw the brain out of the head in a lot of cases," said Mohammed Abdel Rabouh, 23, the head of the nurses at the hospital, while standing in the emergency room holding a bullet.
Various political and religious figures called for an end to clashes, which have plagued Egypt since Wednesday when Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, the defense minister and head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, announced that Morsi, the nation's first democratically elected leader, was no longer president and that a controversial constitution passed during his tenure had been suspended.
"Violence begets violence and should be strongly condemned. Independent investigation a must. Peaceful transition is only way," Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace laureate and leader of the largest opposition group, the National Salvation Front, said on his official Twitter account.
A once-fierce critic of SCAF, ElBaradei had been expected to be named vice president today.
As the sun rose here, residents discovered security forces had set up checkpoints throughout the city.
At least 40 people had been killed since Friday and another 1,000 had been injured before Monday's fighting. Up until now, the clashes primarily had been between pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators, making Monday's clashes a turning point, the first major fighting between government forces and Morsi supporters.
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Last week, one pro-Morsi supporter had been in killed at the same section of town after protesters allegedly tried to storm the Republican Guard entrance.
Those who support Morsi called the military intervention illegal and demand that he be reinstated. But the majority of the nation appears to have endorsed the move by the military, saying Morsi was an incompetent, divisive leader who did little to improve the nation and that Egypt could not survive three more years of his presidency.
Morsi's supporters considered their defense of the presidency a religious duty in the days leading up to Monday's clashes, vowing to become "martyrs."
The Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, the secret organization through which Morsi ascended to the presidency, promised to keep fighting.
"We will never surrender," the spokesman said. "We are peaceful."

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