Brother of Al Qaeda's top leader Ayman al-Zawahri arrested in Egypt
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Egyptian police arrested the brother of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri on Saturday, as officials say he planned to bring in armed groups to support Morsi demonstrators holed up inside a mosque.
An official said Saturday that Mohammed al-Zawahri, leader of the ultraconservative Jihadi Salafist group, was detained at a checkpoint in Giza, the city across the Nile from Cairo.
The official declined to give further details. He spoke anonymously as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
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Mohammed Al-Zawahri's group espouses a hard-line ideology but was not clandestine prior to Egypt's July 3 coup. He was allied with ousted President Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist, whose supporters are now taking to the streets to protest the killings of its supporters in a security crackdown last week.
Authorities also said earlier that al-Zawahri had commanded insurgents in Sinai Peninsula.
Hundreds of Morsi supporters had gathered Saturday at the al-Fath mosque on Ramses Square, the building that Mohammed al-Zawahri is accused of trying to defend with armed groups.
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Security forces later raided the mosque, fearing that the Muslim Brotherhood was attempting to create another protest camp.
At one point, troops exchanged gunfire with men shooting from a minaret of the mosque.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.