Rawya Rageh Live Blog

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports from Cairo, a day after the violent clashes took place near the Ministry of Defence:

It has been a very mixed reaction across the country [to the protests]. Obviously there is an overwhelming sense of anxiety of where the revolution is going and the security situation on the ground. There is a lot of anger towards the protest movement and the protesters outside the defence ministry, as well as the return of the use of the word 'thugs' in describing those protesting outside the defence ministry. There was already a growing divide between the population and the protest movement over protesters actions but at the same time there is also a lot of anger directed at the security forces and the heavy handed way in which they dealt with protesters, especially as we saw the scenes of people clearly fleeing from the scenes but still being chased by the military and police who were showering them with gunfire and teargas.

Last night the action extended from Abbasiya where the defence ministry is to Tahrir square... the area Abbasiya outside the defence ministry is currently quite calm. Municipality workers were seen around the defence ministry clearing the rubble, the shops have re-opened in the area, so somewhat a sense of calm has been restored to the streets.

Underway now is the funeral of the soldier who said to have been shot in his stomach during the clashes. We also understand a very important development in terms of the arrests. while the official figure is that 170 people have been arrested, lawyers are telling us that upwards of 300 people were actually rounded up. Of those, a hundred people have been handed 15 days detention in military facilities. They include women, they include medics who were at the scene trying to help the protesters. A number of journalists remain unaccounted for and are believed to have been rounded up by the military.

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh was just on air, talking about the military's press conference earlier this afternoon, and the reaction from protesters to it.

As expected, the ruling military council attempted to exonerate themselves from any responsibility when it comes to the bloodshed we saw on Wednesday or similar incidents of violence. A very important message to the Egyptian people and the political parties that they need to trust the military leadership when it comes to two important issues: which is handing over power as they had promised on June 30th or even before that if a president is elected. That they have no intention to manipulate or undermine the electoral process, that they stand at equal distance from all the presidential candidates and that they have no interest in any specific candidate winning this election. 

They also made it very clear that the protests, the continuing sit-in outside the defence ministry should end, that people perhaps should move to Tahrir, and warn those who are planning on protesting on Friday against tryinig to move from Tahrir and advancing on the defence ministry.

Those kind of statements by the generals are not expected to placate anger, after all we do have this Friday protest, called the "the Friday of the End", in other words the end of the rule of the generals, or the Friday of rescuing the revolution also as it's been called. The heart of the issue is the demand that the ruling military council upholds its responsibility in protecting protesters and ordinary citizens. 

All along the biggest question with these rounds of violence is why does it take so long for security forces to intervene in those kinds of incidents? After all the bloodshed has happened, we finally see them stepping into the streets, and we saw yesterday, the moment the Armoured Personnel Carriers arrived, the violence immediately came to an abrupt end. Why does it take them so long, and why do they never declare who is responsible for this violence? That is the biggest question.

  Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh tweets about the death today in Cairo: