CAIRO — Egyptian troops blasted protesters with water cannons, tear gas and live ammunition Friday, trying to prevent them from marching on the Defense Ministry, in clashes that left one soldier dead and scores of people injured three weeks ahead of presidential elections.
The street battles raised fears of a new cycle of violence surrounding the vote to replace Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted more than a year ago. For the first time in Egypt’s chaotic transition, hard-line Islamists, rather than secular forces, were at the forefront of the confrontation with the military rulers who have been accused of trying to cling to power.
The military council imposed an 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew on the area surrounding the Defense Ministry, which has emerged as a flashpoint for the protesters’ anger after nine people were killed Wednesday in clashes between unidentified assailants and protesters who mainly consisted of supporters of a disqualified Islamist presidential candidate.
The violence has thrown the campaign for the May 23-24 elections into turmoil, with two front-runners and several other candidates temporarily suspending their campaigns to protest the military’s handling of the situation.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Cairo’s downtown Tahrir Square — the epicenter of last year’s popular uprising — earlier Friday for what has become a weekly rally to demand that the generals speed up a transition to civilian rule. Protesters included the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis but also revolutionary youths who spearheaded the mass rallies that ousted Mubarak.
Despite official warnings against gathering, groups marched to the district of Abbasiyah to join a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry initially held by supporters of Hazem Abu Ismail. A lawyer turned preacher, hard-line Abu Ismail was disqualified from the race because his late mother allegedly held dual Egyptian-American citizenship, making him ineligible under election laws. He has encouraged his followers to take to the streets. “We are in the face of a plot to abort the revolution,” his spokesman Gamal Saber told the Al-Jazeera network on Friday.
Violence appeared to have ensued when protesters tried to cut through barbed wire barricading them from troops blocking access to the road that leads up to the ministry.
Some protesters chanted “peaceful, peaceful” to deter fighting, but the clashes began after troops fired water cannons at protesters and hurled stones to keep them from advancing.
The protesters took shelter behind metal sheets snatched from a nearby construction site and hurled back stones. Others climbed the roof of a nearby university and showered soldiers with rocks from above. The troops then opened up with heavy volleys of tear gas that pushed the demonstrators back. Protesters sat fire to garbage to raise smoke to lessen the impact of the gas.
Troops snatched one protester and beat him with metal sticks, tearing his clothes and leaving his back bloody — a scene aired live on state TV. Soldiers with body shield and red helmets also were seen carrying a soldier who collapsed with his nose bleeding.
After several hours, troops swept through the protesters’ camp, set tents on fire and drove them out of the area. Armored vehicles cordoned off several streets and occupied the main square and surrounding areas, including a big mosque.
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