More trouble in Egypt

As clashes intensify in Cairo, group says 'resist military'

From Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, For CNN
November 19, 2011 -- Updated 2249 GMT (0649
HKT)


Egyptian riot policemen scuffle with a protester
at Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Protesters gather in solidarity in Washington
  
• 1 person is killed, 676 injured, Health Ministry says
  
• Egyptian elections start November 28
  
• The April 6 movement calls for resistance to the military
  

Cairo (CNN) -- The raging clashes between police and
protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday left one dead and more than 600
injured, prompting a call from a prominent grass-roots group for citizens to
resist the military-led government.

The April 6 Movement, which figured prominently in the toppling of President
Hosni Mubarak this year, issued a statement urging its members to descend on
Tahrir "immediately because resistance is the only solution."

"Down with military rule," the movement said.

The fighting erupted earlier in the day when police worked to clear the area
of people who remained in the square after Friday's massive protests in Tahrir.
Tens of thousands of Egyptians turned out Friday to protest plans for a
constitution that would shield the military from public oversight.

As evening came Saturday, police blanketed the square and fired tear gas. The
security forces soon withdrew and stationed themselves at the Interior Ministry.
Warning shots were heard throughout the day.

Thousands of protesters remained at the scene. They chanted against the
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which rules Egypt, and Field Marshal
Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the council who is effectively the interim
ruler of Egypt.

Protesters threw Molotov cocktails and rocks and torched a police van.
Scuffles broke out on side streets and clouds of smoke rose from burned tires,
witnesses said.

One person was killed in the clashes and 676 were injured, state media said,
citing the Health Ministry. The Interior Ministry also said 20 police officers
have been injured and eight people have been arrested.

"We sent hundreds of Central Security Police Forces and forced out the
remaining several hundred protesters who refused to go home. We arrested four
thieves and thugs who acted aggressively and beefed up security in and around
square overnight," Interior spokesman Alaa Mahmoud said earlier Saturday.

The Friday throng, dominated by Islamist parties but including secular
protesters as well, turned out ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections set to
begin on November 28.

Mahmoud said the "Islamists and revolutionaries had left as they promised not
have a sit-in." But stragglers remained, and he said many of the people who
stayed in the square were families of those injured during the upheaval earlier
this year that led to Mubarak's departure and the ushering in of the supreme
council as interim rulers.

Yousri Hamad, the official spokesman of the Al Noor Salafi Muslim political
party, said he thinks that the violence could affect election plans.

"The protesters are a bunch of kids that attacked the security forces which
is a red line and could delay elections," Hamad said.

The military said it wants to transfer power to a civilian parliament and
president, but many citizens are dissatisfied with the pace of the transition
and the resolve of the military rulers.

But protesters were upset Friday about proposed principles for the
constitution, in which the military's budget would not be scrutinized by
civilian powers. They worry that the military would be shaped as a state within
a state.

The outpouring reflected the power of Islamist forces in Egypt, particularly
the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

Those demonstrations occurred a day after hundreds of Coptic Christians
marching in Cairo were attacked by unknown assailants. At least 32 people,
including two police officers, were injured.

They were heading to Cairo's Tahrir Square to commemorate the deaths of
pro-Coptic protesters killed in clashes in the Egyptian capital last month.

Problems between Egypt's Muslim majority and the Copts have been on the rise
in recent months, with a number of violent clashes reported between the two
groups.

Protests also stretched to the United States on Saturday, where demonstrators
gathered in the nation's capital in opposition to military rule in Egypt.

Protester Amin Mahmoud, a member of a group called the "Egyptian Organization
for Change USA," said Egypt's military "has been taking civilians before
military courts, and we are against that.

"They are torturing a lot of young revolutionaries, accusing them of being
traitors, and that is not true," he said.



CNN's Alexander Hunter contributed to this report






It really is quite amazing that the Middle east has erupted into violence almost simultaneously, what with the rest of the World heading for recession , floods, droughts, etc maybe


some divine hand is manipulating all this for the way we have treated the Planet.