Egypt:At least 11 protesters were killed and hundreds were injured

Police burn protest tents to clear Cairo's Tahrir

Egyptian soldiers and police set fire to protest tents in Cairo's Tahrir Square and fired tear gas and rubber bullets in a major assault Sunday to drive out thousands demanding that the military rulers quickly transfer power to a civilian government. At least 11 protesters were killed and hundreds were injured.

It was the second day of clashes marking a sharp escalation of tensions on Egypt's streets a week before the first elections since the ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in February. The military took over the country, promising a swift transition to civilian rule. But the pro-democracy protesters who led the uprising have grown increasingly angry with the ruling generals, and suspect they are trying to cling to power even after an elected parliament is seated and a new president is voted in.

Street battles continued throughout the day and long into the night, spreading to side streets and sending a wave of injuries to makeshift clinics on the streets.

The military-backed Cabinet said in a statement that elections set to begin on Nov. 28 would take place on time and thanked the police for their "restraint," language that is likely to enrage the protesters even more.

"We're not going anywhere," protester Mohammed Radwan said after security forces tried unsuccessfully to push the crowds out of Tahrir, the epicenter of the uprising. "The mood is good now and people are chanting again," he added after many of the demonstrators returned.

The two days of clashes were some of the worst since the uprising ended on Feb. 11.

They were also one of only a few violent confrontations to involve the police since the uprising. The black-clad police were a hated symbol of Mubarak's regime and after the uprising, they have largely stayed in the background while the military took charge of security.

The military, which took over from Mubarak, has repeatedly pledged to hand power to an elected civilian government, but has yet to set a specific date. The protests over the past two days have demanded a specific date be set.

According to one timetable floated by the army, the handover will happen after presidential elections late next year or early in 2013. The protesters say this is too long and accuse the military of dragging its feet. They want a handover immediately after the end of the staggered parliamentary elections, which begin on Nov. 28 and end in March.

The protesters' suspicions about the military were fed by a proposal issued by the military-appointed Cabinet last week. It would shield the armed forces from any civilian oversight and give the generals veto power over legislation dealing with military affairs.

But other concerns are also feeding the tensions on the street. Many Egyptians are anxious about what the impending elections will bring. Specifically they worry that stalwarts of Mubarak's ruling party could win a significant number of seats in the next parliament because the military did not ban them from running for public office as requested by activists.

The military's failure to issue such a ban has fed widely held suspicion that the generals are reluctant to dismantle the old regime, partly out of loyalty to Mubarak, their longtime mentor.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a statement expressing "regret for the events."

The council doesn't intend "to extend the transitional period and will not permit by any means hindering the process of democratic transition," it said a statement read out on state TV.

The violence began Saturday when security forces stormed a sit-in at Tahrir Square staged by protesters wounded in clashes during the 18-day uprising in January and February and frustrated by the slow pace of bringing those responsible to justice.

The wounded, some on crutches, ran away when police attacked, but some fell down and were beaten by police.

One of those injured on Saturday was dentist Ahmed Hararah, who lost the sight in his right eye on Jan. 28 and now thinks he lost the sight in his left eye despite treatment at an eye hospital in Cairo.

The violence resumed Sunday, when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to try to clear about 5,000 protesters still in Tahrir. Many chanted "freedom, freedom" as they pelted police with rocks and a white cloud of tear gas hung in the air.

"We have a single demand: The marshal must step down and be replaced by a civilian council," said protester Ahmed Hani, referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling military council and Mubarak's longtime defense minister. "The violence yesterday showed us that Mubarak is still in power," said Hani, who was wounded in the forehead by a rubber bullet.

Many of the protesters had red eyes and coughed incessantly. Some wore surgical masks to ward off the tear gas. A few fainted, overwhelmed by the gas.

Around sundown, an Associated Press reporter in Tahrir said police and troops briefly chased the protesters out of most of the square. They set at least a dozen of the protesters' tents, along with blankets and banners, ablaze after nightfall and a pall of black smoke rose over the square as the sound of gunshots rang out.

"This is what they (the military) will do if they rule the country," one protester screamed while running away from the approaching security forces.

Protesters initially ran away in panic while being chased by army soldiers and police hitting them with clubs. But they later regrouped at the southern entrance of the square next to the famed Egyptian museum and began to walk back to the square. Hundreds made their way back, waving the red, white and black Egyptian flags and chanting "Allahu akbar," or God is great.

Both sides then began pelting each other with rocks.

Security forces pulled back to the outskirts of the square, where clashes continued into the night.

A video posted on social networking sites showed a soldier dragging the motionless body of a protester along the street and leaving him in a garbage-strewn section of Tahrir Square.

A medical official at Cairo's main morgue said at least 11 protesters were killed on Sunday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Doctors at two field hospitals in the square said that among the dead was one man killed by a blow to his head and another by gunshots.

Rocks, shattered glass and trash covered Tahrir Square and the side streets around it. The windows of the main campus of the American University in Cairo, which overlooks the square, were shattered and stores were shuttered.

"The marshal is Mubarak's dog," read freshly scrawled graffiti in the square.

An Interior Ministry statement said some of the protesters were using firearms, firebombs and knifes to attack security forces.

Clashes also took place in the city of Suez east of Cairo, the coastal city of el-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, the city of Alexandria and Assiut in southern Egypt.

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Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy contributed to this report from Cairo.

http://news.yahoo.com/police-burn-protest-tents-clear-cairos-tahrir-190333136.html

The Egyptians are caught between a rock and a hard place. They will likely be stuck with a military strongman or Islamist vermin.

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The world is ONE SORRY MESS !

 

that is fully supported by the USA
note
the USA is forever here 'talking' with the SCAF
in the last month they have even been 'talking' with the Islamists

the 15 dead it has been reported are from the 'Made in USA' new style tear gas that has been sent in, the same that was sent into Yemen and Bahrain

that is supported and funded by Saudi

notice something?
notice not one word from the White House over the last 3 days?
Both have no idea now what to do because the people are taking back the revolution into their own hands

Our biggest mistake was not removing the entire regime from ANY position of power
Our biggest mistake not fighting to stop SCAF and to carry on till we had a crisis management team consisting of ONLY people who were not running for election to work in interim period
Our biggest mistake to trust anyone but ourselves

 

Well, Egypt certainly is. It's become a country ruled by a military junta where anarchy prevails.

The Arab Winter has begun.

 

Egypt has been ruled by the same military hunta from the 1950s.
Starting for Nasser (military general), Saadat (Nasser second), Mubarak (Saadat second), Tantawi (Mubarak second). All are military.
Don't you understand the whole "revolution" is a coverup ?
The military hunta did not want Mubarak to place his son as ruler, so it organized the "revolution" taking incent people who are really fed up with the dictator to do the dirty job for it.
But the real criminals stayed in the ruling chairs, they just sacrificed Mubarak for keeping their lucrative jobs and to continue enslaving the Egyptians.

 

I hope something favorable for the Egyptian people will happen, otherwise their effort in removing Mubarak from power will be put to waste.

 

So why don't you make that change?

You say your biggest mistake is to trust anyone but yourselves, but if what you say is true, your people are selling you out so how are your people more trustworthy than the Americans you blame for everything?

It is pathetic Abu.

 

Partly right and partly wrong.

This started as a protest against the CSF. (SCAF did not start this to get rid of Gamal.)
Then protest against the regime.
Then it progressed to Mubarak as head of that regime.
Our mistake was stopping after Mubarak fell.

Egyptians identify difference between army and SCAF.
It is SCAF that is the last part of the regime to be taken down.
But we mistakenly trusted them till we saw their alliances with the 'aid providers' who were so quick to flock to Egypt for their own benefits.


This will not be easy and will be bloody because when they fall they will be tried in the courts or will have to flee.

The army are going to have to decide whether to go with SCAF or sacrifice them.
I say they will sacrifice them. They have many enemies.

That and making sure that there is no more outside interference in our affairs.

Just as the US police spray pepper spray in your faces your lethal tear gas is killing many in Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain, and we the Egyptian will not sit peacefully in lines on the ground in a campus and allow them to do it.
Outside forces are working very hard to contain and maintain the status in Egypt as they are trying elsewhere but the people will not be puppets any longer.

When you operate on cancer you have to remove all of it and it's blood supply and that was our mistake.

Now to Downtown

 

I dont have time but this is very simple.

The cancer must be removed.
The cancer has a blood supply which maintains it and that is the USA etc.

Our people will remove all our own cells of cancer and make sure that no foreign cells reappear to reinfect the body of the Egyptian people.

The ex regime do not and never have represented the people.
The people are the ones you see out in the streets. The ones losing eyes and dying right now.
We know what has to be done.
Our mistake we are too trusting and believing and forgiving to the liars. This is partly our culture.
This is our mistake.

 

So you are really of the view that evil only exists outside of your country?



Seems pretty silly to me. Evil exists everywhere and as a wise man, you should know that.

 

Fully supported by Abu Sina, you mean. YOU loved the Arab Spring and praised the Egyptian army. You cannot say that we didn't warn you.


_

 

Most likely a democratic system will be established similar to Turkey's or more militarized, probably having the MB popularly elected overshadowed by a US backed military power of some kind.

 

Intersting......

Anyway, more died today, total of 35 since Friday....

 

That's the trouble with Revolutions - , one can never tell how it'll grow + end up.

...

 

It will end up with MB in power, anything else is "foreign infulence"

 

Now Egyptian goverament resigned.
As if it was the issue.
The rulers are army generals, not the puppet gov.

 

Why do you purport to speak for the people, who according to you are those out on the street losing eyes and dying when you are clearly not one of them?

It seems to me that you are peddling the same line as your "cancer" cells. Have you really made an about turn and now are with the demonstrators out on the street demanding your beloved army hands over the reins to a civil administration? If so I think you should be honest and admit your support for them, including the ludicrous notion they were victims when they ran over people last month, was a huge mistake and that you take back every word.

 

Egypt cannot be a democratic country. It will ultimately become Islamist. At the present rate Egyptians are going to starve to death. They import half of their caloric intake and only has $13 Billion in reserves. They're going to be hungry. It's best for America to avoid the Egyptians. Bunch of beggars.

 

I'd also be interested whether you're willing to to take back your claim that Egyptians are not interested in democracy. Or what do you think these young people are still on Tahrir Place risking to be killed by teargas for?

Teargas that does indeed not seem to be a "non-lethal weapon" as its producers "Combined Systems International of Jamestown, Pennsylvania", claimed. That is if - as likely - the teargas currently used is indeed still from the very stock that was once supplied by the West to its former ally Mubarak.
While not agreeing with Abu on many points I find this criticism of his very valid.

 

This is the Muslim Brotherhood demonstrating because they don't like the military dictatorship's attempt to write a constitution. Egyptians don't want democracy. They want an Islamist state administered according to the dictates of Sharia Law.

 

Oops, didn't know that guys like Khalid Abdalla were members of the Muslim Brotherhood and don't want democracy. Let's hear what he has to say:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxfiYCjKd0Q"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxfiYCjKd0Q[/ame]

 

A westernized apostate is not representative of the Egyptian people. He speaks English without a trace of an Arab accent. This guy is a poser, not a real Arab.

Egypt is currently governed by a military dictatorship. Soon it will be governed by an Islamist dictatorship. Egypt will be the Sunni version of Iran.

 

Do the people commenting the current crisis in this clip have enough of an accent for you? But look, the woman does not even wear a headscarf! She can't possibly be a 'real' Egyptian, right?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll9cXXNKIOM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll9cXXNKIOM[/ame]

It is of course possible that the Muslim Brotherhood will win upcoming elections in Egypt. Actually that would bother me less than the Republican right-wing fundamentalist theocratic nuts winning the next US-elections.
That's democracy: it can suck!

 

I'm no more a Republican than Franz Kafka was a Christian Democrat. But I am an atheist. See how little you perceive about us. You're a prisoner of your own stereotypes.

The Egyptians are going to starve unless someone gives them money to import food. Egypt has big problems of the most basic kind.

 

Well, it's not your vote then that a US presidential candidate is after when eagerly promoting his strong Christian beliefs. And I'd be surprised if anyone even won the preliminaries if he didn't do that but instead announced that he would not want to take his oath of office on the Bible.

It's well possible that I'm a prisoner of my own stereotypes though. And it's rather obvious that you are too.

There's a way out though: ever since I regularly meet Americans who are neither overweight nor sport ridiculously old-fashioned hairdos I freed myself of some of mine. I don't expect you to meet up with Egyptians on a regular basis, but maybe complementing your fox-news diet with a bit of Aljazeera here and there might help.

Here's a clip on another Egyptian:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHBRtnVgmc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHBRtnVgmc[/ame]