Dozens of Islamic militants unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including suicide car bombs, on Egyptian army checkpoints in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula yesterday, killing at least 53 soldiers.

Hundreds of thousands thronged the streets of Cairo and cities around the country and marched on the presidential palace, in an attempt to force out the Islamist president with the biggest protests Egypt has seen in two years of turmoil.

Egypt’s president Mohamed Morsi will meet senior judges today to try to ease a crisis over his seizure of new powers which has sparked protests reminiscent of last year’s revolution which brought him to power.

The leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group expected to dominate the country’s next parliament, said it does not seek to get into a power struggle with the ruling military council over the formation of the next government.

Fear that Egypt’s ruling generals are working to perpetuate their hold on power is causing a political furore, threatening a “second revolution” and sending relations between the generals and activists to new lows less than four weeks before a key election.