CAIRO: Egyptian police and soldiers fired weapons and used batons and teargas for a fifth day on Wednesday in the latest effort to clear Cairo’s central Tahrir Square of opponents of army rule, amid mounting international concern about the violence.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned as “shocking” incidents such as one in which two Egyptian soldiers were filmed dragging a woman protester on the ground by her shirt, exposing her underwear, then clubbing and kicking her.
“This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people,” Clinton was quoted as saying in a speech at Washington’s Georgetown University.
General Adel Emara, a member of Egypt’s ruling military council that took over after President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February, said on Tuesday the attack on the woman protester was an isolated incident that was under investigation.
The United States, which saw Egypt as a staunch ally in the Mubarak era, gives Cairo 1.3 billion dollar a year in military aid.
Gunfire rang out across Tahrir Square at dawn as security forces charged hundreds of protesters attempting to hold their ground, activists and a Reuters journalist at the scene said.
After a night of clashes, hundreds of people were in Tahrir in the morning, although traffic was still flowing through. (UNI)
