Cairo clashes

For the second day in a row, Egyptian security forces and anti-military protesters battled in central Cairo on Saturday. Nine people have died and some 300 people have been injured in the renewed violence, according to the country's Health Ministry.

Hundreds of protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at soldiers after the military set up a no-go zone surrounded by razor-wire barriers near Tahrir Square. Protesters had been camped outside of cabinet offices to prevent newly appointed Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri from entering.

News agency Reuters reported that witnesses had seen soldiers using electric cattle prods against the protesters. Pictures appearing to show a military policeman dragging several women by the hair and beating a woman who appeared to be in her 50s have quickly spread across the Internet.

Among the dead was Emad Effat, a senior cleric in the government-run Dar al-Ifta, the official interpreter of Islamic law, the institution said in a statement published by news agency MENA.

Call for calm

France responded on Saturday to what appears to have been a new level of force used by the military against pro-democracy activists.

"France is worried about the violent incidents that have taken place on Tahrir Square in Cairo," a foreign ministry statement said, adding that Paris "denounces the violence and excessive use of force against protesters."

Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, however, el-Ganzouri defended the response of security forces, accusing "thugs" of initiating tensions by throwing firebombs at its forces outside the cabinet building.

While accepting that people had died, he denied that the military and police had fired at protesters, claiming "a group came from the back and fired at protesters." He went on to call the anti-military protests "anti-revolution."

"Those who are in Tahrir Square are not the youth of the revolution … this is not a revolution, but a counter-revolution," he said.

In an attempt to quell tensions Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), has ordered that all wounded civilians should be treated at military hospitals, thought by many to be better equipped than their civilian counterparts.

Increasingly unpopular

The latest clashes were triggered late on Thursday when soldiers stormed an anti-military protest camp outside the cabinet building near Tahrir Square, expelling demonstrators who were demanding an end to military rule.

The military took over in Egypt after longtime President Hosni Mubarak was driven from power by popular protest in February. In the absence of a president, the military remains the ultimate authority on all matters of state.

It was initially welcomed by many as a "protector of the revolution." Tensions have since swelled, however, and some protesters have called for an immediate transfer of power to a civilian authority.

The protests have marred a recent parliamentary election, the first since the fall of Mubarak. Islamist parties won a clear majority of seats in the first round of voting last month.

The country remained calm during a second round in nine of the country's 27 provinces on Wednesday and Thursday and results are expected in the coming days. The rest of the country is set to vote next month.

The young activists who led the movement against Mubarak have not translated that success into victory at the polls, while the Islamists - long repressed under Mubarak - look to be on the verge of gaining power.

Author: Charlotte Chelsom-Pill, Holly Fox (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Martin Kuebler