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CAIRO (Reuters)-police in Cairo fired tear gas Wednesday at hundreds of stone-throwing young Egyptians after a night of clashes that injured more than 1,000 people, the worst violence in the capital in several weeks.
Nearly five months since a popular uprising has toppled the longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's military rulers are struggling to maintain order while a restless audience is still eager for reform.
The latest clashes began after the families of people killed in the uprising that ousted Mubarak held an event in a Cairo suburb late on Tuesday in their honor.
Other grieving relatives arrived to complain that the names of their own deaths were not mentioned at the ceremony. Fighting broke and moved towards the capital's central Tahrir Square, and the Ministry of the Interior, according to officials.
The Ministry of Health said 1.036 people were injured, including at least 40 policemen.
The ruling military Council said in a statement on its Facebook page that the recent events "had no justification other than shake the safety and security of Egypt organized in a plan that leverages the blood of the martyrs of the revolution and to sow division among the people and the security apparatus."
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said TV was monitoring developments and pending a full report on the clashes.
40 people were arrested, including the United States and one is British and were questioned by military prosecutor, said a security source, quoted by State news agency MENA.
Some said that those involved were bent on fighting the police rather than complain. For others, the violence seemed motivated by politics.
"People are angry that the lawsuits against senior officials to keep always late," said Ahmed Abdel Hamid, 26, an employee of the bakery, which was the scene at night, referring to senior political figures of the time Mubarak discredited.
By early afternoon, eight ambulances were in Tahrir, epicenter of the revolt that toppled Mubarak the 11 February, and the police had left the square. Dozens of teenagers, shirts tied around their heads, blocked traffic from entering Tahrir, using stones and scrap metal.
Some led mopeds in circles around the square, making shoes and angering bystanders. "Thugs, thugs ... The square is owned by thugs, "an elderly man chanted.
"I'm here today because I heard from the police violent treatment of demonstrators last night," said Magdy Ibrahim, 28, an accountant in Egypt's Banque du Caire.
TREATING WOUNDED
Egypt discouraged the financial market, clashes with equity traders blame the violence on a 2 percent fall in the benchmark index EGX30, its biggest drop since June 2.
First aid workers treated people especially for inhalation of tear gas in violence overnight. A Reuters correspondent saw several people with minor injuries, including some with head cuts.
Mohsen Mourad, the Deputy Interior Minister to Cairo, said security forces did not enter Tahrir overnight and faced only 150-200 people who tried to break into the Ministry of the Interior and threw stones, damaging cars and police vehicles.
Muslim Brotherhood's political party warned Egyptians that Mubarak's rule remains could use violence to their purposes. Presidential candidate, Mohamed ElBaradei has urged the ruling military Council to clarify the facts surrounding the violence and take measures to stop it.
United States Secretary of State William Burns, visiting Cairo, said he hoped that an investigation into the clashes would be "fair and thorough".
Young men lit car tyres in the streets near the Ministry Wednesday, sending black plumes of smoke into the air.
"There is a lack of information about what happened and the details are unclear. But what is certain is that the Egyptians are in a State of tension and the reason for this is that officials are taking the time to put on trial, Mubarak and officials, "said political analyst Hassan Nafaa.
Sporadic clashes, some of them, between the Muslims and the Christian minority, have posed a challenge to a Government trying to restore order after the police many deserted streets during the revolt against Mubarak. In early may, 12 people and 52 wounded in sectarian riots and the burning of a church in Imbaba neighborhood of Cairo.
A hospital in Central Cairo Munira received two civilians and wounded policemen with 41, bruises and inhalation of tear gas, said MENA. All were discharged except a civilian with a bullet wound and a policeman with concussion, and said.
Former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli has been sentenced to prison for corruption, but he and other officials are still tried for charges related to kill protesters. Police vehicles were stoned by protesters at the hearing on Sunday.
The former President, now hospitalized, was also accused of killing demonstrators and could face the death penalty. Mubarak begins trial 3 August.
(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed and Sherine El Madany; Written by Edmund Blair and Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Peter Graff)
