In a bid to consolidate his power President Mohammed Morsi forced Egypt’s top military chiefs to retire today.
The Washington Post called this “a bold move to wrest power from the armed forces and marginalize key holdovers of ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s reign.” The decision comes after a major security breach in Sinai last week, where 16 Egyptian security forces were killed in an attack on a border post by Sinai militants.
In addition to revoking Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Army Chief of Staff Sami Anan’s positions as top military officials in the government, Morsi also withdrew a constitutional amendment that gave the military wide-ranging powers and limited presidential powers.