CAIRO,
March 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Some 150 people were
injured Thursday, March 20, in clashes between the Egyptian police and
the some 15,000 people who demonstrated in Al-Tahrir square, downtown
Cairo, against the launch of the U.S. military aggression on Iraq,
Al-Jazeera satellite channel reported.
"The
angry and provoked demonstrators converged in down town Cairo, just near
the U.S. and British embassies," eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.
"They
started performing Al-Zhor prayer gathering people from all walks of
life and by-passers.
"The
police did not dare to attack them during the prayers. They (the
protesters) invoked Allah Almighty to help the Iraqis defeat the new
Tatars," added the eyewitnesses.
Ending
up their prayers and defying the newly-extended emergency laws, the
protesters raised their Qur’ans, calling on Arab leaders to rally up
behind their "brothers in Iraq, who have come under unfair
aggressions."
The
clashes broke out after demonstrators tried to break through police
lines protecting the U.S. and British embassies here.
Shouting
anti-U.S. slogans, they hurled stones at anti-riot police deployed to
prevent them from reaching the embassies.
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An
Egyptian demonstrator shouts anti-US and British slogans
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A
statement distributed by the Egyptian national powers called for
expelling the U.S., U.K. and Israeli ambassadors from Egypt, grinding to
cessation the passage of all U.S. and British warships from the Suez
Canal and annulling the crippling emergency laws, military courts and
all other laws, which strip people from their freedom.
In
addition, thousands of students at Al-Azhar, Cairo and Kafr Al-Sheikh
universities burned a U.S. flag and demanded the expulsion of the
ambassadors of the United States, Britain, Spain and Israel.
"No
to war," "There is only one God and Bush is his enemy,"
"Bush, criminal, Muslims are digging your tomb," they chanted,
brandishing copies of the Holy Qur’ans as well as Iraqi and
Palestinian flags.
The
demonstrators also called for "reviving Jihad against the invaders
and sending Arab troops from all Arab countries to Iraq."
The
riot police cordoned off the campuses to prevent the sea of students
from stepping out and sweeping the streets.
U.S.
Embassy Staff Reduced
In
a related development, the U.S. embassy in Cairo announced the U.S.
mission, which employs around 400 American nationals, had slashed its
working personnel to less than a quarter.
"We
have curtailed our operations today," Agence France-Presse (AFP)
quoted Philip Frayne, the embassy spokesman, as saying.
"There
are only emergency staff in the embassy," he added.
The
American Cultural Center in the Mediterranean coast city of Alexandria
was also instructed to shut its doors on Thursday as was the American
College at Maadi, in the southern suburbs of Cairo, he said.
On
Sunday, March 16, Egyptian Interior Minister Habib Al-Adli announced
authorities were stepping up safety measures to protect American
interests in Egypt from the risks of terrorist attacks because of
the Iraqi war.
