Pro-Morsi protest in Egypt fizzles out amid massive security

A tight lockdown on Cairo by Egyptian security forces on Friday all but squelched a planned day of protests by ousted president Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, leading most observers to agree that the new military government had gained a decisive edge in its battle against Brotherhood activists.

The demonstrations were to come a day after deposed President Hosni Mubarak was released from prison and placed under house arrest in a military hospital in southern Cairo; but this did not seem to have much impact either way.

Armoured military vehicles moved through the streets around dawn, unrolling coils of barbed wire across thoroughfares, encircling central mosques where protests have often broken out after prayers on Fridays. A few marquee mosques were closed in an extraordinary step.

Tanks and armoured personnel carriers took up positions at bridges, tunnels and other crucial intersections. Soldiers and police officers sat in folding chairs with automatic rifles across their laps, shooing journalists and other pedestrians away.

The relatively small number of demonstrators who did turn out was so cowed by the violence of the new regime's crackdown that they took steps to avoid even the smallest confrontation, gathering in only one place or moving in circles on a few blocks to avoid approaching army barricades.

The protests were to be the first since the Brotherhood's spiritual leader and 'supreme guide' Mohammed Badie was arrested and accused of instigating violence. Nearly 80 Brotherhood members, including senior leaders and spokesmen, were arrested on the eve of the Friday rallies.

Mubarak is still facing trial on charges of complicity in the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the 2011 uprising against him. But his release was viewed by many who rebelled against him as a setback in their campaign to hold him accountable for years of abuse and corruption.

Morsi supporters have kept up protests since 3 July, when he was ousted by the military after millions took to the streets.