CAIRO: The military advanced, then retreated, but all the while attacking protesters and foreign journalists alike. Evan Hill, an online producer for Al Jazeera, was caught in the chaos, detained and beaten, activists reported on Friday early afternoon. According to fellow Al Jazeera produce Adam Makary, writing on Twitter, said he was “beaten by military police. His phone, camera and passport confiscated.” Approximately two hours after his release, Hill wrote on his personal Twitter account that “Soldiers & men in plainclothes beat me with batons, wooden sticks & once with a crowbar before I was taken inside.” The battle between protesters and erupted around 2 AM when security at the sit-in in front of the cabinet building reportedly abducted one protester, beat and tortured him, before he was released. Upon his release, fellow protesters began chanting and then rock throwing ensued. “The military started throwing rocks first,” one protester told Bikyamasr.com. A number of tents were set ablaze inside the sit-in area. The military then opened water hoses directed toward the protesters, not the tents. At around 10 AM in the morning, smoke was still rising from the area, as broken rocks lined the ground around the area. Protesters, braving the barrage of rocks being thrown, had picked up plywood planks and were covering their heads from the rocks being thrown, in an attempt to get close enough to throw their own rocks back at the around 10 men high up on the building. At around 6 AM, security opened fire on the protesters. By then, the protesters had moved from the Magles el-Shaab to the main Qasr el-Aini street. It is unknown if the bullets used were live ammunition, but Bikyamasr.com did take an image of what appears to be a live round. Since then, it has turned into a stand-off between protesters and the plainclothes men above, with rock throwing persisting by the minute. The events of Friday morning follow last month's violent clashes only a few streets away on Mohamed Mahmoud street, where protesters and security – police and military – fought brutal battles for 6 days. At least 70 people were killed in the street fighting, which galvanized hundreds of thousands of Egyptians to take to the iconic Tahrir Square nearby, medical sources told Bikyamasr.com. Now, Cairo is bracing for a new round of clashes after the military invaded the peaceful sit-in and violently removed the protesters from the area. Streets are closed and shops remain unopened on Friday. “We are waiting to see what happens next. When people wake up today, they will come and we will not stop this in the face of military,” Amr, a protester with rock in hand, told Bikyamasr.com. By early afternoon a number of marches had begun to arrive in Tahrir Square, with activists bracing for clashes with the military and police. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/uSnk4 No related posts. Tags: Al Jazeera, Cabinet, featured, Police, SCAF Section: Egypt, Latest News, Media
