SCAF Live Blog

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.

Egypt's ruling military has warned against any attempt to approach to defence ministry, following a call for a demonstration on Friday to protest against deadly clashes a day earlier.

"The responsibility, the duty, the law and the right to self-defence, as well as the honour of the military obligates members of the armed forces to defend the defence ministry and its military installations because they are a symbol of military honour and the stature of the nation," General Mokhtar al-Mulla, a member of the ruling military council, has said today.

"If anyone approaches its (installations), they should hold themselves responsible," he told reporters.

[AFP]

Protesters at the Ministry of Defence managed to detain some of the men who attacked them during overnight clashes. Here are four of the men: they are tied up and being held in a tent near the protest site outside the ministry of defence [Reuters] 

Egyptian protesters (supporters of presidential candidate, Abu Ismail) camp out at the defence ministry calling for SCAF to leave.