Clash in Cairo between Egyptian police and Mursi supporters
Police on Sunday used heavy tear gas to clear hundreds of supporters of Egypt’s ousted president from Cairo’s famed Tahrir Square shortly after they took over the plaza.
It was the first time in more than a year that they entered the central square in significant numbers. The location has been the near exclusive domain of liberal and secular protesters since shortly after now-deposed Mohammed Morsi took office in June 2012.
Police acted swiftly and appeared to surprise protesters, who quickly dispersed and took refuge in side streets. After an initial salvo of some two dozen tear gas canisters, armored police vans rushed to the square with sirens wailing. Later, six armored personnel carriers belonging to the army arrived.
The square was the birthplace of the 2011 revolt that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. That uprising was led by liberal and secular youth groups, whose differences with the hardliners began to surface later in 2011 over claims that Morsi’s Brotherhood and its allies were more interested in their own political gains than pursuing the uprising’s goals.
02.12.2013
SOURCE: MEDIA
