Thousands cheer in Tahrir Square as Egyptian government offers to resign over growing violence

Violence in Cairo's Tahrir Square enters its third day, with at least 24 people killed in clashes between protesters and security forces.

CAIRO - Egypt's army-appointed government handed in its resignation on Monday, trying to stem a spiraling crisis as thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square clashed for the third straight day with security forces in violence that has killed at least 24 people and posed the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of the military. The crowds in Tahrir, which had grown to well over 10,000 after nightfall, broke out into cheers with the news of the cabinet's move, chanting "God is great." But there was no sign the concession would break their determination to protest until the military steps down completely and hands over power to a civilian government. Beating drums, the protesters quickly resumed their chants of "the people want the ouster of the field marshal," a reference to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the council of generals that has ruled the country since the Feb. 11 fall of authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which Tantawi heads, did not immediately announce whether it would accept the mass resignation.

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PressTV: US major architect of massacre in Egypt - Ralph Schoenman: I think it's important to understand that the US has not merely supported Mubarak for forty years and exchanged literally billions of dollars between the Pentagon and his military in sustaining him there in close coordination with Israeli Mossad, but the US has played the principal role in sustaining in power the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). And indeed on state television yesterday they cited police action in the US against the Occupy Wall Street movement across this country to justify in Egypt the bloody suppression that is ongoing as we speak.