Sunday, July 24, 2011

Violent clashes leave 140 injured in Cairo

Protesters board .- Egyptian military and alleged "baltaguiya" (thugs) today held violent clashes near the headquarters of the Armed Forces in Cairo, which killed more than 140 wounded, officials said. A pro-reform activists march started from Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests, to the headquarters of the military junta, where he met with barricades erected by the army, and attack with stones and petrol bombs civilians.


A senior Health Ministry official, Adel Adaui said the state agency Mena that so far 143 have been wounded. One eyewitness, Mark Gamal, told Efe how to reach the neighborhood of Abbasiya protesters came across people carrying knives, bottles and stones, but devoted only to insult them. However, the approach to the An Nur mosque, near the headquarters of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, they found the road blocked by members of the military police and tanks.

Behind them, protesters were allegedly supporters of the junta, who began throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, according to this source. The army fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse protesters on both sides, the sources said. However, Gamal said that fighting continued and that has caused "many injured".

"I brought together a group of people to a boy no older than 16 years and was unconscious. He had a wound in the chest, but do not know if it was a bullet or a stone," said Gamal, adding that it was "very difficult" to leave the area because it is blocked. Another witness, Zahra Mortada Leil, said as the protesters were blocked several streets and, some roofs, unknown threw stones and Molotov cocktails.

The demonstrators chanted slogans like "The people want the fall of Marshal" (Tantaui, head of the military junta). However, a senior military source quoted by unidentified and Mena gave another explanation: "It started when members of a popular committee tried to impose a barrier between protesters and soldiers.

When trying to put this obstacle, the demonstrators threw stones and bottles. " The military police "trying to manage the situation with the highest degree of prudence," the source said, reiterating that the Army "will not use force against demonstrators" who number between 3 000 and 4 000.

This event was originally organized by the Movement April 6 to protest the accusations against the group today by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who claimed that seek to create discord and rift between the army and the people. The opposition group decided at the last moment to withdraw from the march to consult with all members of the movement and other political forces, said a spokesman, Tarek the cage.

However, the demonstration was conducted with the aim, as the Youth Coalition of the Revolution, to ask the junta to speed up democratic reforms and transferred power to a civilian board. Last night there were also some disturbances in Cairo when groups of protesters marched to the Ministry of Defence to find out that protesters in the cities of Ismailia and Suez had been loyal to the regime attacked by the army without doing anything to stop it.

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