Egyptian soldiers attack Tahrir Square

An Egyptian protester shows spent bullets and a blood-stained sheet after Egyptian soldiers stormed Tahrir Square in Cairo. Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
 Egyptian soldiers armed with clubs and rifles have stormed Cairo's Tahrir Square in a pre-dawn raid that reportedly killed at least two people, reigniting the simmering tensions in the country.
Video footage showed hundreds of troops firing weapons and charging in large numbers into the square to clear it.
Tahrir Square – which for 18 days was the centre of the Egyptian revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak — was occupied again on Friday by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians calling for Mubarak to be put on trial, and for the head of the army, Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, who is the titular head of state, to be removed.
Many demonstrators were demanding that the army council be replaced by a civilian one during a transitional period to democracy, accusing the military of protecting members of the former regime.
The huge turnout followed growing fears that the revolution had been hijacked by the army.