Egypt’s Tahrir Square is a Scene of Chaos After Violent Crackdown by Egyptian Security Forces.

Protestors in Cairo have been mercilessly beaten down by Egyptian Security Forces in an attempt to quell the protests still raging in now famous Tahrir Square, scene of the revolution against long time dictator Hosni Mubarak’s rule. In a protest raging for its second night, security forces unleashed rubber bullets and tear gas on protestors while the crowd responded with molotov cocktails and rocks. The BBC says that this is an attempt on the part of the Egyptian Security Forces to clear Tahrir Square in order to head off an attempt at a toppling the government. The emergency council has declared that elections will begin on schedule unlike earlier reports of the military’s desire to delay the transfer of power to a civilian government until as long as 2013. Al Jazeera calls the current calm a ‘stalemate’ with protestors remaining in occupation of Tahrir Square as of late Sunday night. Riots apparently also occurred in the Egyptian cities of Alexandria, Al Minya, Suez and Aswan. Protestors are calling for the relinquishment of power by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and accuse it of trying to form a shadow government to subvert civilian rule. The BBC is reporting that 13 protestors have been killed so far in the renewed violence.

 

[The Atlantic Wire]