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Yesterday at about 12 o'clock
Some people from the army came
They climbed on the podium
And people thought they were not with us
People thought they were Mubarak's men come to take control
So they told them to leave the podium and said "We don't want soldiers here"
The soldiers said "We've left the army and come to join you"
"Because of what happens in the army"
"and because of Tantawi" [Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces]
and then said "Please protect us"
They left the podium, because there was a lot of confusion
Everyone was asking "What does he mean?"
and saying "Make them go"
So they left and went to another podium
and said "We are asking for your protection"
So people then set up that tent in the middle here
and let the soldiers in and surrounded them
I was standing behind their tent
How many were they?
At the beginning there were 7 or 8 of them, something like that.
Soldiers?
No...
A colonel..?
And... umm... A lieutenant...
Look, to be honest I don't know the different ranks at all
Anyway, by evening there were 15 of them
So we were here in the roundabout
and we decided to form popular committees
to close off the different entrances to the square and make sure it was safe
At around 12, a female lieutenant appeared
They took her arms...
Basically she gave up her arms and joined us
At about that time, people came and told us the square was being surrounded
by the army from all sides
When it got to about 2.45am we were thinking that since the curfew had started at 2am,
surely nothing would happen until morning
But then at 2.45
we found the army had entered the square
Some of them were wearing face masks
Somebody said we should chant "peaceful"
So we chanted "peaceful, peaceful"
Then suddenly we heard gunshots over there
A lot of gunshots
Then they attacked us
We didn't know where they were coming from
They were all over the square
We ran in this direction
We were protecting the tent
and they chased us
I told them "Kill me!"
"Here I am, kill me!"
They ran after us, and one was shouting "I'll kill you! Move, or I'll kill you!"
They forced us to leave
They pushed us back to the mosque over there
and we couldn't get back into the square
We were standing there
By the mosque?
By the mosque, yes, and the bit by there
We didn't want to leave the people who were here in the square
By that point the square was full of soldiers
People were standing in the roundabout
And the shooting...
All you could hear was shooting!
We had no chance against that.
They surrounded us where we stood, over there
They didn't want us to cross over to the square
I asked him, "What if it was your mother or your sister standing here?"
He said, "My mother or sister would not be standing here!"
I told him, "No, if your mother and sister were not tied to you by your position, they would have been here with us"
He shouted, "It's not my job to deal with civilians!"
"I don't know how to deal with civilians!"
you could see he wanted to beat me up
"I'm supposed to deal with the Israeli army!"
One woman said, "Why? Don't you have a wife or sister or mother?"
Then he convinced people to move further away
and we remained standing over there
Every so often someone would shout, "Get a doctor!"
The shooting continued the whole time, very intense
Then they said it was curfew time
and we saw the forces entering
What forces?
Army forces, and then Central Security forces
and then more Central Security
When we saw the CS forces we chanted: "The dogs are here!"
We chanted things against them
and against the army
They came and told us the curfew was in force until 10
Suddenly, just after dawn, at around 6 or 6.15am,
we saw they were starting to withdraw, of their own accord
We entered the square
We found body parts
and ambulances carrying people
and people injured
I was also injured, in my leg, from where they'd beaten me
It was completely blue
And when I saw those body parts I just...
How did they beat you?
They beat me with the butts of their guns
Anyway, we got here, found body parts and the ambulance gathering the injured people
People told us that three officers had been killed
and that a tank had run over a little girl and killed her
We found a liver over there
They said it was the liver of the girl who died
And body parts that they'd hidden in the garbage...
And who set this car on fire?
The army
It was the army who set both the cars on fire?
Yes. They wanted to let the "baltageya" [hired thugs] enter the square through the entrance by the "mogamma'" building
So we went to defend it
Anyway, our friends kept calling us from hospitals to give us the news
Saying so-and-so is in ICU
So-and-so is dead
Many cases, more than 200 cases
That's it...
That's all that happened
We stayed here, and said, "We're not going anywhere"