By Agencies
CAIRO: Egypt’s Health Ministry says 20 people have been killed since Sunday in clashes between police and protesters demanding the country’s military rulers quickly transfer power to a civilian government.
The ministry also said Monday some 1,750 people have been wounded in the clashes since they began Saturday. The ministry did not specify whether the dead and wounded were protesters, or whether the figures included policemen and army soldiers.
The military has floated a timetable that places the transfer of power late in 2012 or early 2013, but the protesters want it to announce a precise date. A growing number, however, wants the military to immediately step down in favor of an interim civilian council.
Protesters beat back a new police raid to evict them from Cairo’s central Tahrir Square on Monday, witnesses said.
The police fired tear gas and attacked a makeshift field hospital, said the witnesses.
They said the protesters broke up pavements to hurl the chunks of concrete at police.
A volunteer at a makeshift hospital in Tahrir said they get 12 cases every hour. Doctors said they’ve seen wounds caused by live ammunition.
A volunteer at the makeshift hospital in Omar Makaram Mosque said the protesters are trying to protect entrance to Tahrir from Mohamed Mahmoud Street, where the clashes occur.
“It’s not true that the protesters want to attack the ministry of interior; they just want to protect the square,” volunteer Mohamed Mostafa told Daily News Egypt. –Additional reporting by Daily News Egypt.
A protester wounded in the eye is rushed to a field hospital in central Cairo following deadly clashes with security forces on Nov. 20. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Khaled)
