Plainclothes security forces in Egypt slashed protesters with swords and attacked them with firebombs the past three days as the provisional military government faces the same demands that brought about Hosni Mubarak’s downfall.

Brutal and deadly attacks on protesters have been similar to those of Mubarak’s police force against demonstrators last month.

The revival of the uprising for political freedom was violently squashed after opposition crowds broke into a dozen government security offices across the country and confiscated secret documents. “We found transcribed phone calls between university professors, political activists, opposition figures" and evidence of torture, one protester told the BBC.

Witnesses said that plain clothes men from the secret police establishment which protesters want dismantled responded with knives, swords and firebombs

The military government is likely to withstand the protest because it has cleansed itself of prominent pro-Mubarak officials. Responding to demands for reform, the provisional government removed a key minister, who is now on trial for corruption, and replaced Ahmed Aboul-Gheit as Foreign Minister, a position he has held since 2004, and who was prominent in the Mubarak regime.