Protestor on Tahrir Square in Egypt. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
CAIRO: Egyptian police fired live rounds in the air to disperse about 1,000 anti-government protesters in Cairo on Saturday, a Reuters witness said, amid fears of violence on the anniversary of the 2011 revolt that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The witness said police also fired tear gas and birdshot at a crowd of secular-minded liberal activists attempting to march toward Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest against the military-backed interim government.
The protesters were chanting slogans against the army and the police as they gathered at the Mostafa Mahmoud mosque in the district of Mohandiseen before they were chased away by police.
The square next to the mosque was blocked off by police, who arrested seven demonstrators, security sources said.
Some people tried to hold up posters of the Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, toppled by the army in July, but other protesters stopped them from doing so.
Hisham Sadiq, a university student, said he was protesting against "military rule and the thugs of the Interior Ministry."
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My salute to the Egyptian Army. They know how to deal with the extremists.
Newest reports count 29 dead already, and who knows how many injured. Worst yet, is not over yet, and it won't be over next week or next month. Since the ouster of the elected president Mohammed Morsi, Egypt has become a human flesh grounding machine - almost equal to Syria's daily death count, except a refugee problem. Worse yet, there are too many external interests mixed in the Egyptian inter-fighting, as well as media propaganda wars in which the Western media and the Saudi media conglomerates across Middle East which support the military junta.
There is only one solution to Egyptian's slaughtering each-other at this point, and that solution is the emergence of Nasserite and nationalist Egyptian colonels in the army who want an Egypt free from external dominating allies, and who would dare to move and oust Mubarak Generals who have become marionettes of the U.S. (for weapons) and of Saudi Arabia's (for $ billions) in freebies. Egypt has fallen back to the Pharaoh's era when foreign bribes and free weapons were given to Pharaoh to control Egypt on behalf of Great Britain. Nikos Retsos, retired professor