Egypt premier apologises for deadly unrest
The new Egyptian premier Ahmed Shafiq has apologised for the deadly clashes between protesters and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak on Tahrir Square. Fighting on the square has left seven dead and hundreds more injured.
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"I offer all my apologies for what happened yesterday and there will be an enquiry," Shafiq said on state television amid allegations that plain-clothed policemen shot at protesters gathered in central Cairo.
Shafiq later told journalists that he was unsure whether the attacks had been organised.
RFI's Michel Arsenault in Cairo
"I don't know if it was organised or spontaneous," he said during a televised news conference.
The new premier was named after the previous government was sacked in a bid to quell the protests.
In Tahrir Square, fighting continued on Friday for a second day with at least seven people killed.
Reporting from Cairo, RFI's Michel Arsenault said the army appeared to be intervening on Friday afternoon, securing some streets and bridges.
“It looks like sodiers are intervening on one side of Tahrir square," said Arsenault, "there's a lot of gunshot, and soldiers bearing assault rifles."
"I see them stopping youths who were throwing stones and I suspect they belong to the pro-Mubarak side."The army also appeared to be clearing the two bridges that had been taken over by the anti-Mubarak camp.
At hospital close to Tahrir square, Dr. Khamal, who worked overnight on Thursday, told RFI the hospital had received several hundred wounded people, some of them had been shot.
“W
e have received around 900 injured,” said Dr. Khamal, “they suffer from cuts and bullet wounds. They were shot by men from the government standing on buildings.”
Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman said on Thursday that neither President Hosni Mubarak nor his son Gamal, who was widely seen as a possible successor, will run in September presidential elections.
Earlier, the State Department said Hillary Clinton had called Vice President Omar Suleiman, telling him the violence "was a shocking development after many days of consistently peaceful demonstrations."
"The secretary urged that the government of Egypt hold accountable those who were responsible for violent acts," the State Department added in a statement.
The European Union added its voice Wednesday to calls from US President Barack
Obama for the transition from Mubarak's three-decade-long rule to begin immediately after the president announced late on Tuesday that he would not seek re-election in September.
But the Egyptian foreign ministry said such calls "sought to inflame the internal situation," while Suleiman, who was appointed this week, insisted there could be no dialogue with the opposition until all the protesters went home.
Correspondents, photographers and cameramen reporting on the clashes in Tahrir Square said that the Mubarak supporters were hostile to the press.
"I've met at least a dozen journalists whe were hit or beaten up because the pro-Mubarak crowd perceive us as being too favourable to the opposition camp," said RFI's Michel Arseneault.
Protesters have said they will proceed with plans for a massive demonstration on Friday, their designated "departure day" for Mubarak.
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