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The army has intervened in Tahrir Square in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, after dozens of men armed with rocks attacked several hundred pro-reform protesters, in an effort to drive them out of the square.
Officers fired warning shots in the air to break up the two sides and seven people were arrested. The flow of traffic through the square on Wednesday was cut off but has since been restored.
"I saw two people injured in the head, carried away by people," Ahmed Fathy, a witness, said.
Activists said they had caught one man who said he had been paid to attack the protesters.
Follo
"Hundreds of men carrying knives and swords entered Tahrir," the AFP news agency quoted a report on Egypt's state TV as saying.
The TV channel showed footage of hundreds of people involved in a stand-off and throwing stones at each other.
"A group of gangsters attacked us with stones, they seemed to be wanting us to leave the square," Gamal Hussein, one of the pro-democracy protesters, later told Reuters.
Later on Wednesday, army officers were seen removing demonstrators' tents and asking them to leave the square.
Groups of activists have continued to gather in Tahrir Square even after Mr Mubarak's departure. They are demanding a complete break with the Mubarak regime.
Insecurity has been rife across Egypt after police disappeared from the streets of major cities during the mass protests.
On Tuesday, at least 13 people died and 140 were injured in clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians in Cairo.
Egypt's military, currently governing the country, has struggled to keep control of the situation.
Details emerging in #AUC student's kidnapping. Reports of two white vans used in the abduction #egypt #cairo. We're tracking this info ...
The eruption of religious sectarian strife, peaking in yesterday's clashes and killing 13 protesting the burning of a church, may have been instigated by a state security body bent on revenge and counter-revolution...
Mounir Megahd, a spokesperson for Egyptians Against Discrimination, says it’s likely the State Security apparatus has orchestrated the clashes.
"Recent reports released have shown the close ties between the state security apparatus and the Salafist movement,” he adds. “It has been reported that state security has used them to bomb the Two Saints Church in Alexandria (on the first of January).”
This is evidence, he says, that state security has infiltrated the Salafist movement and is using them now in their attempt to foment a counter-revolution.