Fierce clashes continue in Cairo’s Alf Maskan area

Clashes escalated on Saturday evening in eastern Cairo’s Alf Maskan neighborhood, leaving scores injured and an unconfirmed numbers of deaths.

As the third anniversary of the January 25 uprising got underway, there was a stark contrast between festivities in Tahrir Square and clashes elsewhere around the country.

At least nine people were killed in the clashes nationwide according to the Health Ministry, but several more are believed to have been killed as the fiercest clashes continued in Alf Maskan.

By Saturday evening the Health Ministry reported that at least 29 had been killed and at least 176 injured in the violence. Hundreds have been arrested around the country.

The Alf Maskan neighborhood is a regular site of some of the most violent confrontations between security forces and Muslim Brotherhood supporters during their weekly Friday protests.

Karim Ennarah, researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Mada Masr that brutal altercations between Brotherhood supporters and police forces have been ongoing for more than three hours as of Saturday evening.

A large numbers of Brotherhood supporters had marched from the Ain Shams district to Alf Maskan earlier in the day. Ain Shams is known to have a strong Brotherhood presence.

"Continuous live ammunition was heard from different locations, and it is very difficult to locate the source. Other eyewitness say there was an exchange of gunfire," Ennarah said.

Earlier in the day, a homemade bomb went off in Ain Shams outside a police institute, causing limited damage and no injuries.

Clashes also broke out between residents of Matareya district, which is very close to Alf Maskan, and Brotherhood protesters, the state-owned Middle East News Agency reported.