Pro-government demonstrators, bottom, watch as cars burn during clashes with anti-government demonstrators, not seen, in Tahrir square, the center of anti-government demonstrations, in Cairo, Egypt, early Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011. Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak battled in Cairo’s main square all day Wednesday, raining stones, bottles and firebombs on each other in scenes of uncontrolled violence as soldiers stood by without intervening. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)CAIRO – Bursts of heavy gunfire rained into Cairo’s Tahrir Square before dawn Thursday, killing at least three anti-government demonstrators among crowds still trying to hold the site after an assault by supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, according to a protest organizer.
Sustained bursts of automatic weapons fire and powerful single shots rattled into the square starting at around 4 a.m., and was continuing more than an hour later.
Protest organizer Mustafa el-Naggar said he saw the bodies of three dead protesters being carried toward an ambulance. He said the gunfire came from at least three locations off in the distance and that the Egyptian military, which has ringed the square with tank squads for days to try to keep some order, did not intervene.
Footage from AP Television News showed two bodies being dragged from the scene. The health minister did not answer a phone call seeking confirmation of the deaths.
Throughout Wednesday, Mubarak supporters charged into the square on horses and camels brandishing whips while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault against protesters trying to topple Egypt’s leader of 30 years. Three people died in that earlier violence and 600 were injured.