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CAIRO — Military police battled demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Sunday, the third day of clashes that have killed 10 people and injured hundreds, casting a shadow over the first free election most Egyptians can remember.

Soldiers advanced from barriers around the square shortly before dawn, scuffling with protesters, activists said. A Reuters witness heard gunfire and saw protesters running from the scene of the latest flare-up.

“It’s cat-and-mouse. The army raid and retreat,” a protester in the square, Mostafa Fahmy, said by telephone.

Hundreds of protesters were in Tahrir in the early morning, some huddled round fires to keep warm after troops burned down tents that had been erected by activists camped there since a protest against army rule on Nov. 18.

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Video: After year of turmoil, Arab Spring still churning (on this page)

The latest flare-up in violence has exposed divisions among Egyptians about the role of the army, which took over after the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Activists have stayed out on the streets for weeks, angered by the army’s seeming reluctance to give up power. But other Egyptians back the military as a force for badly needed stability during a difficult transition to democracy.

Army vehicles and soldiers were deployed on several roads leading into the square. Protesters and troops have clashed repeatedly, throwing rocks at each other, and some protesters have lobbed Molotov cocktails at army lines.

Who’s in charge? Mixed signals from Egypt’s rulers

In earlier clashes, troops in riot gear chased protesters into side streets, grabbed them, beat them to the ground and battered them, a Reuters journalist said. Shots were fired in the air.

Soldiers pulled down protester tents and set them on fire, local TV footage showed. Reuters footage showed one soldier in a line of charging troops firing a shot at fleeing protesters, though whether he was using blanks or live rounds was not known.

State media gave conflicting accounts of what sparked the violence. They quoted some people as saying a man went into the parliament compound to retrieve a mis-kicked football, but was harassed and beaten by police and guards. Others said the man had prompted scuffles by trying to set up camp in the compound.

The latest bloodshed follows unrest in which 42 people were killed in the week before Nov. 28, the start of a phased parliamentary poll in which Islamist parties repressed during the 30-year Mubarak era have emerged as strong front-runners.

‘Where is the dignity?’

The latest crackdown is likely a sign that the generals who took power are confident that the Egyptian public is on its side.

Still, the generals risk turning more Egyptians against them, especially from outrage over the abuse of women. Photos and video posted online showed troops pulling up the shirt of one woman protester in a conservative headscarf, leaving her half-naked as they dragged her in the street.

“Do they think this is manly?” Toqa Nosseir, a 19-year old student, said of the attacks on women. “Where is the dignity?”

Nosseir joined the protest over her parents’ objections because she couldn’t tolerate the clashes she had seen.

Reuters

“No one can approve or accept what is happening here,” she said. “The military council wants to silence all criticism. They want to hold on power … I will not accept this humiliation just for the sake of stability.”

Nearby in Tahrir, protesters held up newspapers with the image of the half-stripped woman on the front page to passing cars, shouting sarcastically, “This is the army that is protecting us!”

“Are you not ashamed?” leading reform figure and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei posted on Twitter in an address to the ruling military council.

Egypt’s new, military-appointed interim prime minister defended the military, denying it shot protesters. He said gunshot deaths were caused by other attackers he didn’t identify. He accused the protesters of being “anti-revolution.”

Slideshow: Elections in Egypt (on this page)

Among those shot to death in the crackdown was an eminent cleric from Al-Azhar, Egypt’s most respected religious institution. At the funeral Saturday of the 52-year-old Sheik Emad Effat, thousands chanted “Retribution, retribution.” Some of them marched from the cemetery to Tahrir to join the clashes.

The main street between Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak protests, and the parliament and Cabinet buildings where the clashes began early the previous morning looked like a war zone Saturday. Military police on rooftops pelting protesters below with stones and firebombs and launched truncheon-swinging assaults to drive the crowds back.

Broken glass

Young activists put helmets or buckets on their heads or grabbed sheets of concrete and even satellite dishes as protection against the stones hailing down from the roofs. The streets were strewn with chunks of concrete, stones, broken glass, burned furniture and peddlers’ carts as clashes continued to rage after nightfall Saturday.

Other Egyptians, desperate for order, voiced frustration about the unrest that has battered the economy.

“We can’t work, we can’t live, and because of what? Because of some thugs who have taken control of the square and destroyed our lives. Those are no revolutionaries,” said Mohamed Abdel Halim, a 21-year-old who runs a store near Tahrir.

Amr Abdallah Dalsh
 / 
Reuters

Meanwhile, the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and the more conservative Islamist Salafis focused on following vote counting from the most recent round of elections. The groups have emerged as the biggest winner so far and likely do not want to do anything to disrupt the voting, which continued until March. The Brotherhood has called for the military to apologize but has not urged supporters to join the protests.

“Islamists went after their own interests. The ballot boxes are their interests,” said Ahmed Hussein, a 35-year-old protester. He accused the military of trying to prolong the transition to ensure protection from civilian scrutiny.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.