Â鶹´«Ã½

Canadian reporters were among the foreign parties rounded up by the Egyptian army Thursday, amid deteriorating conditions on the streets of Cairo where anti-government protesters continue to clash violently with supporters of President Hosni Mubarak.

Two reporters from Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper were taken into custody by security forces and released several hours later.

Sonia Verma and her colleague, Patrick Martin, were taken into custody after soldiers "commandeered" their car at a checkpoint.

"Our car was literally surrounded by about 10 or 12 men," she told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel from Cairo. "They demanded our passports . . . and they got a little bit aggressive, so we passed them over . . . and they asked us point blank if we were journalists and we had to say ‘yes', and at that point a man got into the passenger's seat holding our passports and ordered our driver to drive."

Verma said she didn't know what else to do, so she began tweeting on her BlackBerry about the turn of events.

"I knew my husband and my editors would be reading this stream coming out and would know what was happening," she said.

Verma said they were taken to a cordoned-off section of a road, where they were ordered to sit on the curb with about 20 other foreigners, mostly journalists, while their bags were searched and their phones, confiscated.

Verma said the men that took them into custody included military, police and at least one official from the Ministry of the Interior.

Verma said they were not harmed and after three hours were given back their passports and phones.

"The guy actually shook my hand and said he was sorry," Verma said.

The move to pull reporters off the streets came after a string of attacks on foreign journalists on Thursday.

Among the reported attacks was an incident in which a Greek print journalist was stabbed in the leg with a screwdriver and another in which a photographer was punched in the face and had his camera smashed by a group of men. Al-Jazeera reported that two of its staff reporters had been attacked by "thugs." A Reuters television crew was also reportedly beaten up, and a reporter with Turkish state television was robbed and lost a tooth in a beating.

Human rights organizations also said their staff has been attacked and arrested in Cairo.

Oxfam said that two offices of organizations it supports were raided Thursday.

"We are extremely worried about the fate of these human rights defenders who have been providing critical legal aid and support to their people over the past days of protest," Catherine Essoyan, Oxfam Regional Manager for the Middle East, said in a statement.

Prof. Rachad Antonius of the University du Quebec a Montreal, worries the roundup of journalists and human right watchers could be the beginning of severe action by the government.

"The attempt to push out all the reporters and human rights activists, I interpret that as a way of making sure their will be no witnesses to what will happen," he told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel.

Canada defends journalists

Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon strongly condemned the actions taken by Egyptian security forces against journalists.

"All detained journalists should be released and their equipment returned," Cannon said in the foyer of the House of Commons Thursday.

Cannon said the Egyptian Ambassador to Canada was called in to explain Canada's "grave concerns regarding the targeting of foreign journalists and to urge that his government ensure that the army guarantee their safety.

"Canada continues to urge Egypt to improve respect for human rights, in particular freedom of expression and freedom of association, and this includes the rights of journalists."

"If the government was in any way involved in instigating attacks on peaceful demonstrators this would be unacceptable," he added.

The Washington Post reported that its Cairo bureau chief and a photographer had been detained by Egyptian authorities.

"We understand that they are safe but in custody and we have made urgent protests to Egyptian authorities in Cairo and Washington," Washington Post Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl said Thursday.

CTV's Lisa LaFlamme reported it appeared the Egyptian army was trying to keep the journalists safe amid the chaos.

LaFlamme said a Toronto Star reporter had been escorted back to her hotel by the military, which is recognizing that Western journalists are being targeted by rioters.

The situation has become so dangerous that staff in hotels surrounding Cairo's Tahrir Square have confiscated the cameras of journalists -- including the equipment used by LaFlamme and her crew -- to prevent their businesses from becoming targeted as well.

The U.S. State Department condemned the "concerted campaign to intimidate" foreign journalists in Egypt.

Reuters reported that White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday that journalists should not be targeted and any taken into custody should be freed.