Cairo Clashes Leave 11 Dead

European Pressphoto Agency

Antimilitary protesters clash with men who witnesses said arrived with guns, knives and clubs, near the Ministry of Defense in Cairo Wednesday.

CAIRO—Violence between antimilitary protesters and unknown assailants left at least 11 people dead Wednesday, ramping up tension between Egypt's military leadership and civilian politicians only three weeks before presidential elections.

Witnesses said a group of what they characterized as plainclothes thugs used small arms early in the day to attack demonstrators in front of the Ministry of Defense, where they have protested this week against Egypt's military rulers. Hospital officials said many of the protesters died from gunshot and knife wounds, while others were killed after being beaten with clubs and rocks.

Violence Flares in Cairo Again

View Slideshow

Khaled Desouki/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A wounded demonstrator was carried away from deadly clashes in Cairo.

More photos and interactive graphics

Political parties and presidential candidates were practically unanimous in condemning the attacks, the first major instance of lethal violence in Egypt in three months. All of the top contenders for the presidential race suspended their campaigns, delaying one of Egypt's first live television presidential debates, which had been scheduled for Thursday night. Two left-wing presidential candidates visited the protesters and several campaigns released statements defending them.

Wednesday's violence comes as the country's powerful Muslim Brotherhood, whose political arm dominates Egypt's elected Parliament, is mounting a political offensive against the council of generals who are entrusted with overseeing Egypt's political transition.

At issue is Egypt's influential cabinet of ministers, which the generals appointed late last year, before Egypt's first post-revolutionary national elections gave the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party a strong plurality in the new parliament. The FJP has demanded that the council of ruling generals, which acts as Egypt's head of state, remove the cabinet in favor of a Parliament-appointed body this week, a request the military hasn't heeded.

The plummeting trust between the military-appointed cabinet and civilian political forces has complicated and extended negotiations for a $3.2 billion International Monetary Fund loan that remains one of the final lifelines for Egypt's ailing economy.

Several protesters said they believed the military sponsored Wednesday's violence as a pretext for declaring political instability to extend their rule past June 30, when they have promised to hand executive power to an elected president. Their claim, while impossible to verify, speaks to the degree of public distrust of the ruling generals.

The Brotherhood held the military responsible for the violence, saying in a statement it formed a "plot looming on the horizon to obstruct the hand-over of power according to the scheduled deadline of June 30."

The military didn't comment on the allegations but said in a statement it had intervened to halt the violence. The military is so eager to hand over power to civilians that it would do so the day after the opening round of elections if any candidate wins outright with more than 50% of the vote, General Sami Anan, a member of the ruling council, said in a television appearance Wednesday.

One apparent hostage of the standoff has been a looming deal with the IMF. Egypt is running out of foreign-currency reserves and needs the loan within the next several months to avert financial disaster and the disorderly devaluation of the Egyptian pound.

The Egyptian government has said it hopes to get final approval for an IMF program by mid-May, before the first round of presidential elections starts on May 23. But the government has been struggling to get the support of all the country's political parties for its economic-reform plan, which many parliamentarians have criticized as too vague.

The IMF has said repeatedly in recent weeks that it will back only a program that has "broad political support."

Masood Ahmed, the IMF's director for the Middle East and central Asia, said Wednesday the Egyptian government's plan will need to address Egypt's fiscal and economic imbalances, generate investor confidence and deal with social issues, as well as receive support from Egypt's Parliament and political leadership.

"As soon as there is a program that addresses all these issues, we will be ready to present this" to the IMF board for approval, Mr. Ahmed said in an interview in Dubai. Work on such a program "is still unfolding," he said.

The FJP, partly in an attempt to gain leverage in its battle to oust the military-appointed cabinet, has held out on approving the program. Brotherhood leaders have repeatedly said they won't sign the IMF loan with the sitting government, which they consider incompetent and unworthy of administering the money and launching an economic-reform program.

Last week, only six out of 365 members of Egypt's Parliament voted in favor of the government's economic plan.

On Sunday, the Brotherhood suspended parliament until the military agrees to reshuffle its cabinet of ministers. Saad Al Katatni, an FJP leader and the speaker of Parliament, said Sunday that a member of the council of ruling generals had told him that they would reshuffle the cabinet within 48 hours.

Three days later, no announcements have been made about the cabinet. At least two ministers have said no new cabinet appointments are in the works.

Following Wednesday's attacks, the FJP boycotted a meeting set for the same day with the military leadership that was aimed at resolving an ongoing dispute over whether Islamist politicians should be allowed to dominate a committee that will draft Egypt's new constitution.

Frequent delays in the constitution-writing negotiations threaten to extend Egypt's political instability. The military leadership has asked that the constitution be written before presidential elections in three weeks—a timetable that looks increasingly unlikely.

Write to Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@dowjones.com

A version of this article appeared May 3, 2012, on page A8 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Cairo 'Thugs' Kill Protesters.

SmartMoney Glossary:

Egypt, presidential elections, presidential elections online, FJP, Ministry of Defense

Online.wsj.com