Egyptian security forces and demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square clashed for a fifth straight day, with reports of hundreds of injuries. At least 13 people have been killed since Friday.
Doctors at the last remaining field hospital in Tahrir told the Al-Ahram publication they saw security forces shooting and killing protesters. Not all the deaths reported were in the square but also in other locations in Cairo.
“The bullets had entered and exited their bodies, making it seem like the result of snipers. The force of the gunshots was very strong,” Yamen El Genedy, a doctor on the scene, told Ahram.
Tahrir Square was the site of mass protests that resulted in the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in February. Since then, the military government has ruled the country and protesters have sporadically demonstrated in the square since then.
Other witnesses said they heard heavy gunfire on Tuesday, “Hundreds of state security forces and the army entered the square and began firing heavily. They chased protesters and burned anything in their way, including medical supplies and blankets,” a protester named Ismail told Al-Arabiya television.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday urged Egypt’s government “to respect and protect the universal rights of all Egyptians, including the rights to peaceful free expression and assembly.”
