CAIRO // The death toll in street battles between protesters and the Egyptian military rose to 14 yesterday with three young men killed in early-morning clashes, as top military commanders tried to shift the blame on to saboteurs.
Major General Adel Emara, of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), said outside forces were destabilising the country and blamed the media for fanning the flames of discontent in and around Tahrir Square.
"There is a methodical and premeditated plot to topple the state, but Egypt will not fall," he told a news conference broadcast on state TV. "The media is helping to sabotage the state. This is certain."
He also said he had "received a call now to say that a plot was uncovered today to burn parliament and there are now large crowds in Tahrir Square ready to implement the plan". Scaf, which is overseeing the transition to an elected government, says it acts on behalf of the "silent majority" that want stability and oppose protests in Tahrir Square.
It had been able to maintain this image in the past by relying on the central security forces, black-clad men with riot shields and tear gas, to confront demonstrations. The latest round of fighting has been primarily between protesters and the military.
Photographs and video footage have emerged in the past four days of a group of soldiers in camouflage uniforms beating and stripping a veiled woman, of a soldier firing a handgun into a crowd and of unidentified men some wearing parts of uniforms - aiming rocks at the heads of protesters from the tops of buildings.
During its news conference yesterday, Scaf showed its own footage of soldiers being attacked by protesters and interviews with detainees that appeared to discredit the pro-democracy groups refusing to leave Tahrir Square. One showed a woman admitting she was not married to her partner and another featured a young man saying that Mohammed Hashem, a prominent publisher, was inciting protests.
"What are we supposed to do when protesters break the law?" Gen Emara said in the broadcast. "Should we invite people from abroad to govern our nation?"
Surveys have depicted Egypt as a country with loyalties divided between Scaf and Tahrir Square. The University of Maryland released the results of a poll last month that suggested 43 per cent of Egyptians believe the military rulers are working to slow or reverse the gains of the Tahrir Square uprising.
But in September, the International Peace Institute (IPI) said 53 per cent of Egyptians believe further protests are unnecessary to achieve the goals of the revolution, compared with 35 per cent who believe they are.
Walter Armbrust, a professor from the University of Oxford, said a fight for legitimacy was playing out in an information battle, with short videos and photographs put forward by both sides to justify their actions.
"It's true that generally the non-politicised public is sick of the revolution and still broadly supportive of the idea that the military council is a wise and responsible steward of the national interest," he said. "[Scaf] knows this and is appealing to those sentiments in increasingly shrill tones, even if it means a constant streams of blatant lies that look increasingly threadbare.
"But I doubt that public opinion is running in the council's favour among the fraction of the public that's inclined to act rather than just talk. The lies are becoming too outrageous to be bought by the politically discerning."
The situation on the streets of Cairo is now vying with the parliamentary elections - which have finished two of three rounds and have been largely dominated by Islamist political groups - as the most pressing concern for Egyptians.
Jamal Hindan, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, said that Scaf had shut down its communications and had resorted to solely issuing statements and messages.
"During emergencies, there is rarely any type of communication with Scaf," he said. "It's always one-way communication - either they send their messages out or receive messages. But there is normally no dialogue, or no talks, when clashes like these are happening."
Most of the fighting yesterday took place in the early hours when army and police stormed the square. Egyptian activists posted mobile-phone photos of the casualties, including one man bleeding profusely from the head, on Twitter and other social networking sites.
A video taken by one activist and uploaded to the internet by Mosireen, a local non-profit media collective, showed both army and police firing weapons at protesters.
It was unclear whether live ammunition had been used. But Pierre Sioufi, an Egyptian activist and blogger, called the early-morning clearing operation "the most vicious and barbaric attack by security forces to date".
* With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse