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New clashes erupt near Egyptian Interior Ministry

Arab World Materials 24 November 2011 02:24 (UTC +04:00)
Clashes erupted anew late Wednesday between protesters and police near Egypt's Interior Ministry, despite enhanced military police security around the facility.
New clashes erupt near Egyptian Interior Ministry

Clashes erupted anew late Wednesday between protesters and police near Egypt's Interior Ministry, despite enhanced military police security around the facility, DPA reported.

The ministry has been a flashpoint for violence the last few days between security personnel and protesters demanding a change in government.

The renewed clashes harmed efforts to ease tension after more than 35 people have been killed and 3,000 wounded in five days of protests targeting the ruling army council, according to a recent report by the Egyptian Health Ministry.

The protesters accused the military police of firing at them with live ammunition, but the Interior Ministry denied such claims and said its member were only using tear gas. Ambulances with wailing sirens were seen heading to the area of the clashes, while smoke billowed at the scene.

As night fell, the numbers of protesters rose when army troops moved into a nearby street where violent clashes between security forces and demonstrators had raged for five days.

Three armoured vehicles arrived on Mohammad Mahmoud Street, where dozens of people formed a human shield, setting themselves between security forces and protesters, who have clashed repeatedly since Saturday.

As the police retreated towards the nearby headquarters of the Interior Ministry, protesters chanted: "Down with the Interior (Ministry)."

The continued clashes have prompted the grand Sunni-Muslim Imam of Al-Azhar, a complex of Muslim religious and secular educational institutions, to urge Egyptian police not to shoot protesters, in a recorded address on state television.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb called on armed forces to prevent confrontations, while he called on protesters to maintain the peaceful nature of the demonstrations.

"Al-Azhar calls on the police leadership to immediately issue orders not to point their weapons at demonstrators ... no matter what the reasons," Tayyeb said.

"Al-Azhar also calls on our children in Tahrir Square and all the squares of Egypt to maintain the peaceful nature of their revolution, and to protect all private and public property."

On Tuesday, Egypt's military ruler, Hussein Tantawi, said presidential elections would be held by next June, advancing by months the date of power transfer to an elected government.

"The armed forces have no ambition in keeping power," Tantawi added in a televised address.

However, his pledge made little impression on many protesters in Tahrir. "Down with the military," chanted demonstrators in a chorus.

Tantawi said the military rulers would step down if the people demanded so via a public referendum.

The military has been ruling Egypt since a popular revolt unseated former president Hosny Mubarak in February.

Anti-government protesters have also accused the security forces of using banned gases on them.

"The US-made tear gas canisters being thrown by the security forces on us are much stronger than those used during the anti-Mubarak revolt," said Wael Atiyah. He was being treated for injuries at a makeshift hospital in Tahrir.

"This gas racks your nerves and makes you feel you are unable to move your body," he told dpa.

Health Minister Amr Helmi, however, denied the claims.

"The Health Ministry's paramedic teams working in Tahrir have also been exposed to the gas and have not shown unusual symptoms," he said on a tour of the square. He added on Wednesday that he had set up a panel to examine samples of the gas fired on the demonstrators.

Meanwhile, Germany and Britain called for an immediate end to violence in Egypt.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman urged Egypt's military rulers to discuss with the opposition a plan for democracy.

"In the new Egypt, which intends to be free and democratic, there can be no place for repression and violence against peaceful demonstrators," spokesman Steffen Seibert said in Berlin.

In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague expressed concern at the "unacceptable violence and loss of life" in Egypt and condemned the use of "dangerous forms of gas" against protestors.

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