Riot erupts in Cairo's Tahrir Square

CAIRO — Egyptian security forces firing tear gas clashed with around 5,000 rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo late Tuesday, leaving dozens injured in the latest unrest to rattle the country, witnesses and medical officials said.

Clouds of tear gas and the wail of police sirens engulfed Tahrir Square as the security forces battled to regain control of the central plaza from the demonstrators, many of them family members of the more than 850 people killed during the revolution.

According to local newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, the fighting began after several people from the group of grieving relatives of protesters were arrested. The conflict escalated when a few dozen more protesters were arrested for demonstrating the original arrests.

Protesters chanted, "The people want the fall of the general," in reference to Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Al-Masry Al-Youm reports.

The families are frustrated with what they perceive as the slow prosecution of security officers believed to be responsible for the deaths of some 850 protesters during the 18-day uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February.

As Tuesday's clashes moved into early Wednesday morning, rocks and shattered glass littered the streets around Tahrir, as protesters chanted: "Down with the military junta." The demonstrators used motorcycles to ferry the injured to safety.

The violence started outside the Interior Ministry after some protesters began throwing stones at the building, said Mohammed Ahmed, a 33-year-old eyewitness. Security forces responded with volleys of tear gas and blocked off the streets around the ministry.

The violence then shifted to nearby Tahrir Square, which was the epicenter of Egypt's revolution. Lines of central security troops in riot gear sealed off the main streets leading into the square, while dozens of security vehicles were parked in side streets.

Al Maataz Hassan, an engineer, accused the security forces of the same heavy-handed tactics as before Mubarak's fall.

"The security forces' violence is the same," he said. "They accuse the people of being thugs, then crackdown. It's the same mentality as before the revolution."

Tuesday's clashes, the most serious between security forces and protesters since the revolution, are a sign of the tumultuous transitional period the country is going through as it struggles to shift from an authoritarian to democratic system.

That transition took a step forward earlier Tuesday with an Egyptian court's ordering the dissolution of more than 1,750 municipal councils, seen as one of the last vestiges of Hosni Mubarak's rule.

The administrative court decision, announced by presiding judge Kamal el-Lamei, meets a major demand of the protest movement that drove Mubarak from the presidency in an 18-day uprising early this year.

The local councils, with over 50,000 seats filled by elections widely viewed as rigged, were a backbone of support for Mubarak's ruling party. They became particularly important after 2005 constitutional amendments required presidential candidates to obtain support from a quota of local council officials, as well as from national parliament members. Critics saw this as a stepping stone for Mubarak's son, Gamal, to succeed his father in office.

The court decision can still be appealed, but popular opposition may make it difficult for Egypt's current military rulers to challenge it.

Hamdi el-Fakharani, an engineer who filed the court case against the councils, said 97 percent of council members belonged to Mubarak's now-dissolved National Democratic Party.

"They had already begun campaigning, using municipal services to influence people in favor of the party's comeback and saying the revolution has negatively impacted the economy," he said.