CAIRO: Egyptian police and soldiers fired guns and teargas to try to clear protesters from Cairo's Tahrir Square on the fifth day of clashes that have killed 13 people and drawn a stinging rebuke from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton on Tuesday condemned as "particularly shocking" incidents such as one in which two Egyptian soldiers were filmed dragging a woman protester on the ground by her black full-body veil, exposing her bra, then clubbing and kicking her.
The confrontations provide a turbulent backdrop to Egypt's progress towards democracy, with nine provinces, mostly outside the capital, holding run-off votes on Wednesday and Thursday in a parliamentary election being staggered over six weeks.
The army has pledged to hand power to an elected president by July, but its plans to permanently shield itself from civilian oversight in the new constitution have enraged pro-democracy protesters, who want it to hand over power at once.
Medical sources say 13 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the latest violence, which began on Friday in Tahrir and nearby streets leading to parliament and the cabinet office.
"Women protesters have been rounded up and subjected to horrific abuse. Journalists have been sexually assaulted. And now women are being attacked, stripped and beaten in the streets," Clinton said in a speech at Washington's Georgetown University on Monday.
"This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people," she added, in some of the strongest US criticism of Egypt's new rulers.
The United States, which saw deposed leader Hosni Mubarak as a staunch ally, gives Cairo $1.3 billion a year in military aid.
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