'More than 1,000 hurt' in Egypt clashes

More than 1,000 people were reported injured as Egyptian security forces clashed for a second day in Cairo with hundreds of youths.

The protesters are demanding that the country’s military rulers speed up prosecution of police officers accused of brutality during mass protests that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down.

In scenes reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak on February 11, riot police deployed around the Interior Ministry building and fired in the air or used tear gas as demonstrators threw rocks and firebombs.

The fighting left streets littered with rocks and debris and a heavy, white cloud of tear gas hung over the area.

By late afternoon, army troops backed by armoured vehicles took over from riot police who had been protecting the Interior Ministry, closing all roads leading to the complex, the official Middle East News Agency, MENA, reported.

The protests highlight the ongoing upheaval in Egypt nearly five months after Mubarak stepped down.

The country is struggling with a worsening economic crisis and a security vacuum that has led to a surge in crime.

The question of meting out justice to those responsible for the deaths of some 850 protesters during the uprising, as well as for regime stalwarts charged with corruption, is among the most divisive in post-Mubarak Egypt.

Many of those who took part in the uprising accuse the ruling military of showing too much reverence to key figures of the old regime and lenience with senior police commanders accused of ordering the killing of protesters.

Assistant Health Minister Abdul-Hameed Abazah said that of the injured, some 900 were treated on the spot and more than 120 went to hospitals.

Most of the injured suffered from gas inhalation or concussion, officials said. At least 18 cars and 11 stores were damaged.

Ambulances ferried the wounded to hospitals, and volunteer doctors and nurses treated others on pavements.

The military issued a statement on its Facebook page claiming the clashes were designed to “destabilise the country” and drive a wedge between the groups behind the uprising and the security forces. It called on Egyptians not to join the protests.

Some of the protesters used scarves to shield them from tear gas. They pelted police cars with rocks and advanced when the riot police lines retreated.

The main chant back in January and February was “The people want to oust the regime.” But that has been replaced by screams of “The people want to oust the field-marshal” – a reference to Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak’s longtime defence minister and chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that has taken over. Some of the youth groups behind the uprising see Tantawi as tainted because he was a key member of the Mubarak regime.

Critics also charge that Tantawi’s policies are designed to keep the old order, and accuse him of deliberately stalling the process of purging Mubarak loyalists and failing to reform the hated Interior Ministry and its security agencies.

Mubarak has been under arrest at a hospital in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh and has been separately charged with ordering the killing of the protesters. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Tahrir Square was closed to traffic today but about 1,500 protesters remained out on the streets.

A key youth group, April 6, described the police’s handling of the latest protests as “brutal” and called in a statement for a sit-in in central Cairo to protest at what it said was the failure to implement many of the demands from the uprising and to show solidarity with the families of the uprising’s victims.