Egyptian army denies trying to clear Tahrir Square

Cairo's Tahrir Square gripped by clashes Cairo - Akram Sami and Agencies Egypt's army claimed earlier it had intervened on the streets of central Cairo to protect the Interior Ministry, not to clear demonstrators from nearby Tahrir Square. "The army did not go to Tahrir but the protesters came to the ministry. The protesters have a right to protest, but we must stand between them and the Interior Ministry," said General Saeed Abbas, assistant to the head of Central Command.
The Ministry of Health earlier announced that around the death toll has climbed to 33 and 2000 people have been injured.
Mona Mina, a doctor who has been treating the wounded in a mosque near Tahrir Square told 'Arabstoday': "Many people are suffering from wounds caused due to live bullets and tear gas. I myself have treated four people,"
Protests in Cairo have entered a fourth day, as clashes continue between demonstrators and security forces in the Egyptian capital.
Efforts to clear the square appeared to continue on Monday, with TV footage showing tear gas canisters being thrown at protesters.
Police and military forces used batons, tear gas and birdshot to clear the central square of thousands of protesters demanding that the ruling military cede power to a civilian authority.
It was the third day of violence in the Egyptian capital, following a peaceful anti-military mass rally on Friday.
Morgue officials said 13 people died on Sunday and two people on Saturday, kicking off a violent countdown to the country's first elections since the end of former president Mubarak's 30-year-rule.
The legislative elections are due on November 28.
At least four people were shot dead on Sunday, the officials said.
Earlier Dr Mohammed Fatuh, who heads a field hospital in the square, confirmed to AFP that three more bodies had been brought in bearing bullet wounds.
Medics earlier reported four deaths, one from live fire and three from asphyxiation after tear gas was fired.
Police and troops seized the square only to be beaten back by protesters who retook it later, as had also happened on Saturday.
The situation remained fluid with ongoing clashes around Tahrir - the symbolic heart of protests that toppled Mubarak in February.
An AFP reporter said late on Sunday that on one street protesters were throwing stones and petrol bombs at military armoured personnel carriers and riot police.
He said military police had responded with mostly shotgun fire and rubber bullets. When there was steady fire some protesters began to run while others chanted "Hold fast! Hold fast!" and "We won't leave!"
There were heavy clashes on side streets leading to the interior ministry as protesters chanted "The people want to topple the field marshal" - Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's long-time defence minister who heads the ruling military.
Activists tweeted a video they said showed police dragging a corpse on the ground, in what appears to be Tahrir Square, and leaving it by a rubbish dump.
In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a funeral procession for one of the victims degenerated into clashes with the police who fired volleys of tear gas at mourners, the official MENA news agency reported.
In the canal city of Suez, troops fired live rounds into the air to stop protesters from storming a police station in the city centre.
Protests also broke out in the central cities of Qena and Assiut, a security official said, adding that 55 people had been arrested nationwide.
A meeting was held between the government and SCAF amid news about the resignation of Emad Ghazy, minister of culture, and the arrest of Bothaina Kamel, the only female presidential potential candidate.
Emad Abu Ghazi handed his resignation to the ruling SCAF- which took power when Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February -"in protest at the government's handling of the recent events in Tahrir Square," the official MENA agency said.
Kamel was detained in Lazoghly Square, where the ministry of Interior is located, in a protest march against the violent approach of police forces in dealing with the protestors.  
Egypt's cabinet, which held crisis talks for several hours before moving en masse to the headquarters of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) for another meeting, said in a statement that parliamentary elections scheduled for November 28 would go ahead.
Egyptians elect a new parliament in a staggered vote that starts on November 28, but even when the assembly is picked, presidential powers remain with the army until a presidential poll, which may not happen until late 2012 or early 2013. Protesters want a much swifter transition.
Throughout the day, sporadic clashes erupted near the interior ministry on the outskirts of Tahrir Square, which was covered by clouds of tear gas and littered with stones and glass.
In makeshift hospitals set up in mosques around the square, demonstrators were treated for tear gas inhalation and injuries from rubber bullets and birdshot.
The army has denied any desire to cling onto power and says it will not let any violence delay the parliamentary poll. It insists it can ensure security during the vote.
“We are all insisting on having the election on time -- the government, parties and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces,” cabinet spokesman Mohamed Hegazy told Reuters news agency.
The SCAF, in a statement read out on state television, said it "regretted" what was happening. It said it was committed to the elections timetable.
Earlier Mohsen al-Fangari, a member of the council, insisted the election would go ahead as planned and that the authorities were able to guarantee security.
"We will not give in to calls to delay the elections. The armed forces and the interior ministry are able to secure the polling stations," Fangari told a talk show on the Egyptian satellite channel Al-Hayat.
But analysts say a surge in violence in voting, a common feature of elections in Mubarak’s era of rigged polls, could undermine the assembly's legitimacy if the result is questioned and deepen public frustration at the army’s handling of the transition.
The April 6 youth movement said Egypt’s ruling military council was now “wearing the mask” of ousted president Mubarak.
“All the masks are falling off, one after another. The mask of Mubarak, who is now ruling the country, has been unveiled,” the movement stated on its Facebook page.
“After the Egyptian people taught him a lesson, Mubarak has maintained his arrogant attitude, expanded his tyranny and continued to brutally repress the people who were injured during the January revolution.”
The April 6 movement went on to say that its members would not leave the square until the entire Cabinet, appointed by the military council, stepped down.
“The following are our unyielding demands: the dismissal Essam Sharaf’s failed Cabinet, especially Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawy; formation of a unity government tasked with saving the country, which should be granted full authority, without any kind of intervention from SCAF; that presidential polls be held no later than April of next year; and laws to guarantee the right of protesters to stage sit-ins."
The Maspero Youth Coalition took a similar position, denouncing the use of what it called “unjustified violence” against peaceful protesters and calling for a swift transfer of executive power to an elected civilian authority.
“We support the demands of fellow political forces to form a new government, sack the Essam Sharaf government and hand over authority,” it said.
Several prominent political figures and intellectuals, including former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, earlier issued a call for a delay to the legislative polls.
They submitted a new transition roadmap which would see an elected constituent assembly draft a constitution and then a presidential election would be held, followed by parliamentary polls.
The recent street protests have seen the return of riot police, the branch of the interior ministry most used by the Mubarak regime in its crackdown against protesters but rarely deployed since.
Friday's rally, which grouped Islamist and secular activists, called on the military to hand power to a civilian government. It also demanded more control over the constitution the new parliament is to draft.
Protesters called for the withdrawal of a government document that proposes supra-constitutional principles, which could see the military maintain some control over the country's affairs and keep its budget from public scrutiny.
The military says it will hand over power after a presidential election, which has yet to be scheduled.
Friday's demonstration passed without incident, but when demonstrators returned to the square on Saturday, they were met with violence by security forces.
On Saturday, medics announced the deaths of Ahmed Mahmoud, 23, who sustained a bullet wound to the chest in Cairo, and Baha Eddin Mohammed Hussein, 25, hit by a rubber bullet in Alexandria as protests spread.
In Brussels, the European Union called on Egypt to respect human rights.
"I urge calm and restraint and condemn the use of violence in the strongest terms," the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.
"Law and order must be ensured in a manner respectful of human rights," she added.