General Mohammad Zaki, the head of the Republican Guard tasked with protecting the Egyptian president, says the armed forces, and the Republican Guard, will not be an instrument of oppression against protestors.
The statement came after the military deployed tanks outside the presidential palace following a night of deadly clashes between opponents and supporters of President Mohamed Morsi.
Three tanks and three armoured personnel carriers are stationed metres from the front gate of the palace in northern Cairo, where hundreds of Morsi's partisans have chanted slogans in support of the president.
