Image
© Asmaa Waguih/ReutersProtesters and police square-off during clashes near Tahrir Square in Cairo on Monday.
Egypt's Health Ministry says 22 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.

About 3,000 demonstrators faced off with hundreds of black-clad riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets in Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Monday.

Egypt's Health Ministry said up to 1,750 have been wounded in the clashes since they began Saturday, The Associated Press reported.

The ministry did not specify whether the dead and wounded were protesters, or whether the figures included policemen and army soldiers.

Demonstrations were also taking place in Alexandria, Ismailia, Suez and Al Arish in Sinai, NBC News' Richard Engel reported from Cairo on Monday.

It is the longest continuous protest since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in February.


"There is clearly no going back as you can see this violence cannot be swept under the table," said Essam Gouda, a protester in Tahrir, who said two marches were due to converge there by mid-afternoon.

"We aim to control the entry points to the square so that security doesn't block protesters from entering," said Essam.

Tahrir Square was the rallying point for protesters in Cairo when an 18-day uprising toppled Mubarak from three decades of power in February.

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.

Black smoke billowed from a six-story apartment building near the square and a woman screamed for help from a top-floor window on Monday. Firefighters arrived but police fired tear gas from a side street at a crowd gathered below, angering bystanders. Some residents tried to scale the building to rescue those trapped.

With just a week before voting in the first free parliamentary election in decades, the confrontations have raised concerns about how smooth voting will be.

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.

Demonstrators charged

Police backed by army officers fired salvoes of gas canisters and charged demonstrators in the square as darkness fell on Sunday, temporarily sending protesters fleeing. Demonstrators brandished spent shotgun cartridges and bullet casings, although police denied using live rounds.

Security forces burned down banners and Internet clips, which could not be independently checked, showed police beating protesters with sticks, pulling them by the hair and, in one case, dumping what appeared to be a corpse on piles of rubbish.

Demonstrators swiftly regrouped in side streets and returned to take control of the square overnight before police tried again to retake Tahrir after dawn.

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's defense minister for two decades and who leads the army council, has become a target of protests.

"I don't want Tantawi ... I am staying tonight," said Ayman Ramadan, a data entry employee, said early on Monday morning.

Outside the burning apartment building, protesters chanted: "Tantawi burned it and here are the revolutionaries!"

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report