Battleground Cairo: 33 dead in 3 days

Clashes Rock Egypt Ahead Of Elections

Cairo:Cairo police fought protesters demanding an end to army rule for a third day on Monday and morgue officials said the death toll had risen to 33, with many victims shot in the worst violence since the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak. 
    Tens of thousands of people packed Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-Mubarak revolt in January and February, as darkness fell, despite the clashes that threaten to disrupt Egypt's first free election in decades, due to start next week. Protesters have brandished bullet casings in the square, where police moved in with batons and tear gas on Saturday against a protest then dominated by Islamists but since driven by young people with secular aims. Police deny using live fire. 
    Medical sources at Cairo's main morgue said that 33 corpses had been received there since Saturday, most of them with bullet wounds. At least 1,250 people have been wounded, ahealth ministry source said. "I've seen the police beat women my mother's age. I want military rule to end," said protester Mohamed Gamal, 21. 
    Army generals were feted for their part in easing Mubarak out, but hostility to their rule has hardened since, especially over attempts to set new constitutional principles that would keep the military permanently beyond civilian control. 
    Police attacked a makeshift hospital in the square after dawn on Monday but were driven back by protesters hurling chunks of concrete from smashed pavements, witnesses said. "Don't go out there, you'll end up martyrs like the others," protesters told people emerging from a metro station at Tahrir Square. 
    The violence casts a pall over the first round of voting in Egypt's staggered and complex election process, which starts on November 28 in Cairo and elsewhere. REUTERS 
Army seeks to reach out with new law, protesters unmoved 
    Egypt's ruling generals issued a law on Monday barring anyone found guilty of corruption from political life, but protesters said it would not allay their concerns that former supporters of ousted president Hosni Mubarak may regain influence. The announcement was made after three days of clashes demanding an end to army rule in which 33 people have been killed and 1,250 wounded. "The amended law would apply to those who work to corrupt political life," the military council said. Those convicted by the court would be "removed from positions of leadership and would lose their membership in the parliament and local councils," it added. REUTERS

SECOND UPRISING: Protesters take cover as cops fire tear gas and rubber bullets in Cairo on Monday