Egyptian Islamist groups seek truce

Two of Egypt’s former militant groups are offering an initiative to halt the country’s political violence, in which supporters of the ousted Islamist president will stop street protests if the military-backed government stops its crackdown on them.

The initiative led by Egypt’s Gamaa Islamiya and Islamic Jihad movements, which waged an insurgency in the 1990s, aims to start talks between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood, from which President Mohammed Morsi was overthrown by the military on July 3 after millions took to the street demanding that he step down.