Saturday, May 05, 2012


   (From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL) 
   By Charles Levinson

CAIRO -- Egyptian security forces and plainclothed men clashed with thousands of protestors in downtown Cairo on Friday, killing at least one person and leaving hundreds wounded.

It was the second fatal outburst in Cairo in three days, sharpening a showdown with the country's ruling generals at a critical stage in Egypt's transition to democratic rule. In less than three weeks, Egyptians will vote in the first stage of a presidential election meant to mark the end of military rule.

Protestors who fought with soldiers are critical of how the country's ruling generals, who have overseen Egypt since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, are handling the country's transition.

The front lines in Friday's clashes consisted in part of hardline Islamist Salafis who had long refused to enter into open confrontation with the ruling military. But some Salafis have grown increasingly defiant after their favored presidential candidate, Hazem Abu Ismail, was banned from running on the grounds that his mother has American citizenship.

The latest violence began Wednesday, as Mr. Abu Ismail's supporters were the primary participants in a sit-in outside a Ministry of Defense compound in downtown Cairo. They were attacked by what protesters said were plainclothed thugs, leaving at least 11 people dead. The military warned Thursday that they wouldn't tolerate future demonstrations in front of the compound, which houses the ruling military council's headquarters.

On Friday, as a peaceful demonstration in Cairo's central Tahrir Square drew to a close, thousands of protestors marched to the military headquarters and pressed up against its barbed-wire barricades.

"The people want to execute the field marshal," some protestors chanted, referring to Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi, Egypt's top general.

Amid the group of protestors were those waving the flag of the staunchly secular Revolutionary Socialist movement, and the black-and-white flag favored by militant jihadi groups across the region, including Al Qaeda.

The sight of hardline Islamists battling the military in the streets is likely to be jarring to more secular Egyptians who still remember the violent insurrection that militant Islamist waged against Mr. Mubarak's government in the 1990s.

Shortly after 3 p.m., the shouting and taunting gave way to violent confrontation.

Soldiers and protestors began hurling fist-sized rocks at each other, before the military wheeled out water cannons and tear gas, charging down the street in a phalanx of helmet clad riot police with iron shields, several witnesses said. These people said that as protestors retreated from the advancing phalanx, the plainclothed men joined the fray, attacking protestors with rocks and sticks.

The so-called thugs -- baltagiya in Arabic -- have broken up a number of demonstrations in recent months. Protestors say the thugs are paid mercenaries hired by the military. The military says they are angry local residents who don't want the demonstrators coming to their neighborhood.

The Ministry of Health said 296 people were wounded in the clashes, according to state television, and one member of the security forces was killed.

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Summer Said contributed to this article.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-05-12 0724GMT