[This is a syndicated post from the blog: Egypt.]
Via CNN by CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) -- Egyptian riot police working to clear Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday clashed with thousands of protesters, leading to dozens of injuries, authorities said.Around 80 people have been hurt, health ministry spokesman Adel al-Dawi said, and authorities earlier said at least nine police officers were injured. Al-Dawi said he saw dozens of people injured and bleeding.
Police fired tear gas and warning shots as protesters threw Molotov cocktails and rocks and torched a police van.
This comes a day after tens of thousands of Egyptians turned out at Tahrir Square to protest plans for a constitution that would shield the military from public oversight.
"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 President Hosni Mubarak's departure from office.
Egypt has since been ruled by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The military said it wants to transfer power to a civilian parliament and president.
But protesters on Friday were upset 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.
via www.cnn.com
