By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
CAIRO, EGYPT (ANS) -- Egypt's military toppled the country's first democratically elected president Wednesday night, and reportedly put him under house arrest while rounding up some of his top supporters.
According to a story by Ben Wedeman, Reza Sayah and Matt Smith for CNN, this occurred as the deposed Mohamed Morsi insisted he is still the country's legitimate leader.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Egypt over the military's actions that were decried by Morsi's supporters as a "coup," and celebrated as a "correction" by his opponents.
CNN reported that at least eight people were killed, and more than 340 wounded in sporadic violence that at times pitted Morsi's supporters against the opposition and the military.
Morsi "did not achieve the goals of the people," and failed to meet the generals' demands that he share power with his opposition, Egypt's top military officer, Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi, said in a televised speech to the nation.
CNN said Adly Mansour, head of the country's Supreme Constitutional Court, will replace Morsi as Egypt's interim president, El-Sisi said. Mansour was expected to be sworn in on Thursday.
The military has not publicly commented on Morsi's wh ereabouts. However, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad told CNN the deposed president was under "house arrest" at the presidential Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo. He said some members of Morsi's inner circle have also put under house arrest.
The country's constitution has been suspended, and Mansour will "establish a government that is a strong and diverse," said El-Sisi, head of the country's armed forces.
CNN said there will be new parliamentary elections, and Mansour will have the power to issue constitutional declarations in the meantime, he said.
El-Sisi said the military was fulfilling its "historic responsibility" to protect the country by ousting Morsi, a Western-educated Islamist elected a year ago.
CNN said Morsi remained defiant and insisted he was Egypt's proper president.
"The world is looking at us today," he said in a taped statement delivered to the Arabic satellite network Al Jazeera. "We by ourselves can bypass the obstacles. We, the sons of Egypt, the sons of this country -- this is the will of the people and cannot be canceled."
CNN said shortly after Morsi's statement aired, Al Jazeera reported its Cairo studios were raided during a live broadcast on Wednesday and its presenter, guests and producers arrested.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the long-repressed political movement that propelled Morsi to office, said its broadcast outlets had been shut down.
Muslim Brotherhood arrests
The state-run Middle East News Agency said the two top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party had been taken into custody. Another state-run outlet, the newspaper Al-Ahram, said another 300 were being sought by police.
El-Haddad told CNN that he has been told hundreds of names have been put on an "arrest list." However, he couldn't confirm any arrests beyond those of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party chief, Saad el-Katatni, and its deputy, Rashad Al-Bayoumi.
CNN reported Morsi said he remains open to negotiations and dialogue, and he called on supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
However, at least eight people were killed and more than 340 wounded in clashes around the country on Wednesday, Health Minister Dr. Mohamed Mustafa Hamid told Al-Ahram.
CNN said Morsi opponents who packed Tahrir Square, now the epicenter of two Egyptian upheavals, erupted in jubilation and fireworks when El-Sisi made his announcement.
"This is a united people of Egypt," CNN reported anti-Morsi organizer Ahmed el Hawary said. "Mohamed Morsi has actually succeeded in uniting the people, after two years that we were totally against each other ... Mohamed Morsi, with his bad management, with his risking all the lives of Egypt, brought all Egyptians back together to be facing again their future, hand in hand."
However, CNN reported, Abdoul Mawgoud Dardery, a former member of parliament from the Morsy-allied Freedom and Justice Party, called that "ridiculous."
"I don't know how can anyone with common sense support a military coup in a dem ocracy," he said. Egyptians "will never recognize a coup d'etat," he said.
Across the Nile River from Tahrir Square, CNN said Morsi supporters chanted, "Down with military rule," and "The square has a million martyrs."
Before Wednesday night's announcement, CNN reported, troops moved into key positions around the capital, closing off a bridge over the Nile and surrounding Rabaa Adawya Square, where Morsi's supporters were gathered.
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