CAIRO - About 2,000 Egyptians defied soldiers who tried to disperse a protest overnight in Cairo's Tahrir Square and vowed on Saturday to keep demonstrating until former President Hosni Mubarak was tried and other demands met.
Some protesters, angry at the army's use of tasers and batons to drive them out of Tahrir overnight, hurled rocks at a smouldering army truck. Two other army vehicles were burned out. Soldiers were not in the central square area on Saturday.
After a protest by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians during the day on Friday, the army surrounded the square to clear it for the curfew from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. Gunshots echoed around the square during the night as the army clashed with protesters.
Protesters in the rock-strewn square showed off casings of live rounds they said were used. One demonstrator pointed to a pool of blood. In one street near the square, a Reuters witness counted about a dozen trucks carrying troops lined up.
"Thank God, we resisted them (the army), and we are still here," said one protester in Tahrir, which was the epicentre of demonstrations that pushed Mubarak out on Feb. 11 after 30 years in office. Egypt is now run by a military council.
Some protesters took barbed wire that had been left unused by the army and dragged it across roads leading to the square. As they had done during protests to oust Mubarak, demonstrators started checking IDs of those entering Tahrir.
"We will not leave here again until they take tangible steps to put Mubarak and high officials on trial," said Mohamed Abdul-Karim, 31, a lawyer. He said he was a member of a committee to protect the rights of people injured in protests.
Some protesters also want the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to hand power to a civilian council and have called for the resignation of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the army council. He has stayed on as defence minister after serving for two decades in that post under Mubarak.
DETENTION
Many ordinary Egyptians, however, are tired of the protests that have hurt the economy and want an end to the disruption.
The ruling military council said police and soldiers had "confronted acts of rioting and implemented a curfew" without causing any loss of life and blamed disturbances on "elements outside the law in Tahrir", the state news agency reported.
The council also said on its Facebook page it had ordered the detention of Ibrahim Kamel, a senior member in Mubarak's party, for "incitement and thuggery by some of his associates that stirred up the people in Tahrir Square" on Friday.
The council said it would "continue with firmness to seek out remnants of the previous regime and National Democratic Party" involved in such acts in order to maintain security.
The military has enjoyed broad support since it took control of the country on Feb. 11, but complaints against its rule are growing. Attention is now focused on the perceived tardiness of legal measures against Mubarak and his entourage.
"We will stay here until Mubarak is brought to trial," Mahmoud Salama, who works in a tourist agency, said in Tahrir.
Mubarak and his family are banned from leaving Egypt. The former president, 82, is in internal exile in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Speaking overnight from the square, Mohamed Fahmy, 29, said: "They are moving in on us with very aggressive force, I can see people running in every direction."
The sound of gunshots resounded as he spoke. He said the shots were fired into the air.
"Why is the army beating us? Why is the army firing at us?" chanted protesters overnight, according to one witness.
The military had forcibly dispersed protesters before from Tahrir Square. In that case, the military apologised the next day, saying there had been no order to assault the protesters and called the incident unintentional.
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