(19 Nov 2013) A few thousand protesters clashed with police in Cairo's Tahrir square on Tuesday as they took to the streets to commemorate the second anniversary of the "Mohammed Mahmoud" clashes.
The 2011 clashes were one of the fiercest confrontations between protesters and security forces, named after the street off Tahrir where they took place.
They turned out in small numbers in the square - a few thousands - but their return to Tahrir was a rare anti-military protest by the secular revolutionaries since Islamist President Mohammed Morsi's ouster.
They joined other revolutionary activists, who were energised by their turn-out, as they clashed with supporters of the military-backed government, throwing rocks at each other and wrecking a state memorial dedicated to protesters killed in the country's nearly three years of turmoil.
The 2011 Mohammed Mahmoud clashes were prompted by a crackdown on anti-police brutality protests that spiralled into demands for the end of rule by the military, in power after Hosni Mubarak's fall until Morsi's 2012 inauguration.
More than 40 protesters were killed.
Many of the protesters denounced authorities for setting up a memorial to martyrs while neglecting a top demand of the revolution - retribution against those behind the killing of protesters.
The vandalising of the memorial reflected the youth activists' anger against what they see as an attempt by the current military-backed rulers, boosted by popular support since the July coup against Morsi, to paper over past bloodshed and rewrite history.
Shortly before midnight, black-clad anti-riot police made a final push in Tahrir, fired heavy tear gas and police vehicles swept through the square dispersing the demonstration.
Shortly after, army vehicles and closed some entrances to the square.
No Morsi supporters were seen in the square.
Secular, leftist youth activists were at the forefront of Egypt's revolutions, starting with the 2011 uprising that ousted the autocratic Mubarak.
But they have been overshadowed since.
They have also been divided over how to deal with the new order after the military removed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, on July 3 following massive protests against him.


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