VIOLENT clashes in Egypt left 11 people dead today as riot police fought protestors demanding an end to military rule.
Troops and police poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square, symbolic centre of January's uprising that swept hated leader Hosni Mubarak from power.
Bloody violence broke out again as demonstrators took to the streets, angry that military rule has not ended months after freedom fighters toppled the country's dictator.
Eleven protestors were reported to have been killed in clashes with security forces as stone-throwing crowds demanded armed forces chiefs set a date for the handover of power to an elected government.
Last night soldiers and police firing rubber bullets launched a major assault to evict them from the square.
They set fire to tents, banners and blankets, and used tear gas to drive them out after two days of clashes. They succeeded at first after people fled in panic at the sound of gunfire and demonstrators were hit with clubs. But soon after darkness fell hundreds made their way back.
One protester yelled: "This is what they (the military) will do if they rule the country."
Police have been battling an estimated 5,000 protesters in and around the square this weekend � the birthplace of the original 18-day uprising that deposed Mubarak. The deaths come after two others died yesterday in confrontations which left at least 700 injured.
Earlier, protesters threw rocks at security forces and chanted "freedom, freedom" after public anger rocketed over alleged attempts by ruling generals to retain power over a future civilian government. The country's first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections are only eight days away.
But military leaders have suggested power would only be handed back once presidential elections are held late next year or in early 2013.The protesters say this is too late.
Protester Ahmed Hani said: "We have a single demand. The marshal (Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi) must step down and be replaced by a civilian council. "The violence yesterday showed us that Mubarak is still in power."
Tantawi had close links to the former regime as Mubarak's long-time defence minister. Hani had been wounded in the forehead by a rubber bullet.
Several hundred protesters were camping out on the lawn of the square's traffic island as others formed barricades at entrances to control who gets through.
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