Hundreds in clashes in Cairo’s Tahrir Square

AFP

9 03 2011

CAIRO — Attackers armed with knives and machetes on Wednesday waded into hundreds of pro-democracy activists in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, witnesses said, as insecurity raged in post-revolutionary Egypt.

Stone-throwing skirmishes were continuing as an AFP reporter arrived at the scene, and activists were gathering sticks and stockpiling rocks to defend themselves from the mob, supporters of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

« A couple of hours ago the pro-Mubarak thugs attacked us and tried to come into Tahrir, but we were able to push them back, with sticks and stones. We fear they will return, » a young militant, Mouez Mohammed, told AFP.

Tahrir Square was the symbolic heart of last month’s uprising that forced Mubarak from office, and hundreds of pro-democracy activists remain camped out there to maintain pressure on the military regime that replaced him.

« Hundreds of men carrying knives and swords entered Tahrir, » state television reported, as footage showed rocks being thrown and hundreds of activists scattering and diving for cover.

There were few signs of any security forces at the site, apart from two army tanks protecting the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities at the north end of the square, in the heart of the capital. Read more…

Clashes erupt in Cairo’s Tahrir

aljazeera.net

Pro-reform protesters say soldiers used violence in effort to get hundreds of people to leave square in Egypt’s capital.

The Egyptian army has forcefully removed protesters from Cairo’s Tahrir Square, after dozens of men armed with rocks attacked several hundred pro-reform campaigners.

Officers fired warning shots in the air to break up the two sides on Wednesday and scores were arrested. The flow of traffic through the square was cut off but has since been restored.

« We were attacked by the army and plainclothes thugs destroying the tents and beating up everyone, » Salma Said, one of the pro-reform campaigners, said.

« I was very shocked seeing the army coming with sticks, beating everyone and destroying tents over people’s heads. »

Activists said they had caught one man who said he had been paid to attack the protesters.

« I saw two people injured in the head, carried away by people, » Ahmed Fathy, a witness, said. Read more…

~ par Alain Bertho sur 10 mars 2011.

Publié dans émeutes, riots, الشغب