2 Protesters Are Killed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square

From: www.nytimes.com Khaled Desouki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Tahrir Square on Saturday, hours after several thousand riot police, uniformed soldiers and military police officers stormed it. By LIAM STACK Published: April 9, 2011 CAIRO — Egypt’s security forces killed two and injured dozens in a deadly predawn attempt to disperse peaceful protesters spending the night in the capital’s iconic Tahrir Square, witnesses said. The crackdown in the square was the most brutal since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak on February 11. Related The Lede Blog: Video Shows Deadly Raid on Cairo's Tahrir Square (April 9, 2011) The military, which runs the country, on Saturday denied that anyone had been killed and described the protesters in the square as “thugs.” They also said the forces in the square were police officers. Doctors at the Qasr el-Aini Hospital said the two people who died had been shot; they said they also treated 35 people for injuries sustained in the clash. Human rights lawyers said 42 protesters were detained and later interrogated on charges of violating the national curfew. Witnesses said gunfire rang through the streets of downtown Cairo for over 20 minutes early Saturday morning as several thousand riot police, uniformed soldiers and military police officers stormed the square. “It was raining bullets,” said Houssam, 26, who wandered around the square midday on Saturday looking for friends he had lost track of in the pre-dawn melee. “It was an enormous amount of shooting. I didn’t know what was going on.” Security officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the military used live ammunition, tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters, who said they were chased down narrow side streets as they tried to flee. Protesters regained control of the square by sunrise, forcing security forces back under a barrage of stones and setting fire to three of their vehicles. By midday Saturday the square was sealed behind makeshift barricades of barbed wire and metal girders and littered with stones from the early morning clashes. Thousands gathered to chant antimilitary slogans; some gawked at a pool of blood on the sidewalk where they said a man had died and others presented spent bullet casings as evidence of the attack. The military has been widely seen as the guardian of Egypt’s democratic revolution since it took power, but it has come under increasing criticism for the slow pace of its prosecution of former government officials. It has been further tarnished by a scandal over torture and the longstanding personal ties between the top commander, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and the former president. Tens of thousands of protesters took to Tahrir Square on Friday to demand the trial of former Mubarak government officials and the “purging” of corrupt officials from the transitional government, including Field Marshal Tantawi. The protest was joined by as many as two dozen uniformed defectors from the armed forces, called “free soldiers” by some protesters, who tried to protect them from the raid and feared they would face severe penalties for their public criticism of commanding officers. “We had the free soldiers with us but the army took them,” said Houssam, who added that he and his friends helped some escape capture by “putting them into civilian clothes.” On Saturday, a smaller crowd of several thousand hoisted a man who called himself an army officer, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, to lead chants of “Down, down with Field Marshal Tantawi” and “The people want the execution of the Field Marshal.” Saturday’s killings set off outrage among protesters and posed a major challenge to the military’s relationship with the revolutionary forces that brought them to power. “The military leaders are corrupt, ignorant criminals!” shouted one protester, Essam, who would not give his last name for fear of reprisals. “The next protest we must leave Tahrir and go to the Ministry of Defense.” A version of this article appeared in print on April 10, 2011, on page A10 of the New York edition. Blogger comment: The Egyptian revolution supposed to be for the Egyptian people not the military who did not do a cou against Mubarak until it was very clear that a military cou from the Egyptian free military officers would happen. Tantweey actually was the man of the tyrant Mubarak, or as we call Haman of Pharaoh. He and the military council has to avoid killing any of the Egyptians otherwise will be tried. We all know that America talked to these leaders to make them take over, no brainer. Thus America is ethically responsible for their actions. If not that to happen you will find a lot of young Arab/Muslims join the extremists or make new front of militants who will not be pro-west.