One killed in Cairo, protestors confront security forces

Cairo, Jan 28 (IANS/RIA Novosti) At least one protestor was killed and dozens of others were injured in Cairo Friday, as a large number of protestors took to the streets across Egypt calling for President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation.

Clashes with police erupted outside a mosque in Cairo with protestors throwing stones and dirt and holding up posters saying “No to dictatorship”.

Egyptian opposition leader and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei was confined to an area in central Cairo by the police, RIA Novosti reported Al Jazeera as stating.

Earlier reports suggested he was arrested.

Demonstrations were also staged in Suez, a seaport town, and Alexandria, second-largest city of Egypt.

Alexandria witnessed violence, as security forces used tear gas shells at the protestors running towards the city’s central square, and water cannons were being brought in by security forces for use on protestors, said a media report Friday.

Around a thousand protestors were out on the streets, as youths hurled rocks through the black cloud of tear gas towards police.

So far, at least seven people have been killed and up to 1,000 arrested since the protests began four days ago, inspired by the so-called Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, which ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia earlier in January.

Leading Egyptian opposition figure and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei had returned to Cairo Thursday and says he would join the demonstrators.

World leaders have called on the government and demonstrators to refrain from violence.

–IANS/Ria Novosti