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A Dispatch from Tahrir Square

By David Enders

At least 13 people have been killed in Cairo since Saturday morning in fighting between demonstrators and a potent combination of Egyptian army troops and the Ministry of Interior's riot police. The violence began when riot police evicted a couple of hundred demonstrators who were attempting to reoccupy Tahrir Square, which was the focal point of the demonstrations that drove Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak out of the country in February. Since then, Egypt has been ruled by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, made up of many of the same officers who served under Mubarak when he was in charge.

As the battles appeared ready to enter a third day, demonstrators were once more clashing directly with the military. Their main demand is that the military council speed its proposed transition to a civilian government. That has been their demand since Friday, when tens of thousands demonstrated peacefully. I caught a small sampling of the chaos in the video above, which is interspersed with a plea from an Egyptian I met near the square who insists that the police (who, as you can see above, appear to be shooting into the crowd indiscriminately) be thrown out of the country. He also implies that an exaggerated number of everyday citizens in the area have been accused of being part of the Muslim Brotherhood and other organisations that are seen as threatening to the government. As VICE's Ryan Duffy found out when he visited the country two months ago, it does not appear that an end to the protests or the violence in Egypt will be happening anytime soon.

By David Enders 6 months ago

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