DUBAI—As thousands more protesters gathered on the streets of Cairo, military leaders entered crisis talks in a bid to avert a ’second revolution'.
The numbers of demonstrators at Tahrir Square were swollen further on Tuesday evening following a call for a ’million man' event.
After three days of street battles, security forces attempted to diffuse the situation by staying clear of the square - the epicenter of the first revolution that brought down former president Hosni Mubarak nine months ago.
Meanwhile, the ruling military council held talks with civilian leaders from across the political spectrum on Tuesday afternoon, with the acting head of state Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi expected to deliver an announcement later in the day.
On Monday evening, the entire civilian government resigned in apparent protest against the violence which was engulfing the capital. No announcement has yet been issued by Tantawi on whether the resignation was accepted by country’s military leaders.
The violence has so far claimed the lives of at least 29 people and injured thousands more. A report by Amnesty International accused Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces of echoing the grossest rights abuses perpetrated by Mubarak’s government.
“The euphoria of the uprising has been replaced by fears that one repressive rule has simply been replaced with another,” the report said.
Egypt is expected to hold its first parliamentary elections next week. However the military set off a firestorm by saying this month that it would retain power until at least 2013, after the constitution was ratified and a presidential election was held.
The violence began on Saturday morning, as security forces attempted to clear Tahrir Square of hundreds of protesters who had staged a sit-in to demand an immediate transition of power to a civilian government.
Since then, the capital has been rocked by skirmishes between riot police armed with tear gas and stone-throwing protesters.
Make-shift clinics have been set up on street corners and outside mosques to treat the wounded, which conservative reports suggest to be around 1,250 people.
On Monday night, the military issued a statement offering its “deepest regret” for the casualties so far.
That was rejected as worthless by Hazem Salah Abu Ismail - an Islamist presidential candidate who had joined the protests in Tahrir. “I call on them to step down,” he told the Reuters news agency.
Protesters joined chants calling for the overthrow of Tantawi and held banners that read “Save Egypt from thieves and the military” and “Handing power to civilians is the demand of all Egyptians”.
The United States, which gives the Egyptian military $1.3 billion a year in aid, has called for restraint on both sides.
On Monday, three American students were arrested at the American University of Cairo, which is based on Tahrir Square.
An Egyptian Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press that the three were throwing firebombs at security forces fighting protesters on Tahrir Square.
