CAIRO – Thousands of supporters and opponents of President
Hosni Mubarak battled in Cairo's main square Wednesday, raining
stones, bottles and firebombs on each other in scenes of
uncontrolled violence as soldiers stood by without intervening.
Government backers galloped in on horses and camels, only to be
dragged to the ground and beaten bloody.
At day's end, officials put the death toll at three, and a
doctor at the scene said more than 1,500 were injured.
At the front line, next to the famed Egyptian Museum at the edge
of Tahrir Square, pro-government rioters blanketed the rooftops
of nearby buildings, dumping bricks and firebombs onto the crowd
below — in the process setting a tree ablaze inside the museum
grounds.
On the street below, the two sides crouched behind abandoned
trucks and hurled chunks of concrete and bottles at each other,
and some government supporters waved machetes.
Bloodied anti-government protesters were taken to makeshift
clinics in mosques and alleyways nearby, and some pleaded for
protection from soldiers stationed at the square, who refused.
Soldiers did nothing to stop the violence beyond firing an
occasional shot in the air and no uniformed police were in
sight.
"Hosni has opened the door for these thugs to attack us," one
man with a loudspeaker shouted to the crowds during the
fighting.
The clashes marked a dangerous new phase in Egypt's upheaval —
the first significant violence between supporters of the two
camps in more than a week of anti-government protests. Clashes
began, first in the port city of Alexandria, just hours after
Mubarak went on national television Tuesday night and rejected
protesters' demands he step down immediately. He defiantly
insisted he would serve out the remaining seven months of his
term.
That speech marked an abrupt shift in the deteriorating crisis.
A military spokesman appeared on state TV Wednesday and asked
the protesters to disperse so life in Egypt could get back to
normal. That was a major turn in the attitude of the army, which
for the past few days allowed protests to swell to their largest
yet on Tuesday when a quarter-million peacefully packed into
Tahrir Square.
Also, the regime for the first time Wednesday began to rally
supporters in significant numbers to demand an end to the
unprecedented protest movement calling for Mubarak's removal.
Some 20,000 pro-government demonstrators held an angry but
mostly peaceful rally across the Nile River from Tahrir, saying
Mubarak's concessions were enough and demanding protests end.
Having the rival sides on the streets is particularly worrying
because there do not appear to be anywhere near enough police or
military to control resurgent violence.
International concern was also mounting. The White House
deplored the violence and called for restraint.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Egyptian authorities
must accelerate their political reforms and said that "if it
turns out that the regime in any way has been sponsoring or
tolerating this violence, that would be completely and utterly
unacceptable." German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said
the violence "raises the urgent question whether the political
leaders of Egypt understand the need for rapid democratic
reform."
The violence began after nearly 10,000 anti-government
protesters massed again in Tahrir on Wednesday morning,
rejecting Mubarak's speech as too little too late and renewing
their demands he leave immediately.
In the early afternoon, around 3,000 Mubarak supporters broke
through a human chain of protesters trying to defend the
thousands gathered in Tahrir, according to an Associated Press
reporter at the scene. They tore down banners denouncing the
president, fistfights broke out as protesters grabbed Mubarak
posters from the hands of the supporters and ripped them to
pieces.
From there, it escalated into outright street battles as
hundreds poured in to join each side. They tore up chunks of
pavement and from grabbed ammunition from a nearby construction
site, hurling stones, chunks of concrete and sticks at each,
chasing each other.
At one point, a small contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on
horseback and camels rushed into the anti-Mubarak crowds,
trampling several and swinging whips and sticks to beat people.
Protesters retaliated, dragging some from their mounts, throwing
them to the ground and beating their faces bloody. The horses
and camels appeared to be ones used by the many touts around
Cairo who sell rides for tourists.
The main battle line next to the Egyptian Museum — the famed
treasury of pharaonic antiquities and mummies — surged back and
forth repeatedly for hours. Anti-Mubarak protesters held up
sheets of corrugated metal ripped from the construction site as
shields from the hail of stones. Some claimed that police IDs
were found on several government supporters involved in the
fighting.
Some tried to charge into the buildings where government
supporters on the roofs were pelting them with stones, but they
were stopped by plainclothes security forces at the entrances.
Several firebombs from the roof landed in the museum grounds,
setting a tree ablaze. Soldiers tried to put it out with a hose.
Protesters were seen running with their shirts or faces
bloodied. Men and women in the crowd were weeping. Scores of
wounded were carried to a makeshift clinic at a mosque near the
square and on other side streets. Doctors in white coats rushed
about with bags of cotton, mercurochrome and bandages. One man
with blood coming out of his eye stumbled into a side-street
clinic.
As night fell, protesters not engaged in the continued fighting
knelt in prayers at the center of Tahrir Square, while others
went to get food — a sign they plan to dig in for a long siege.
The army troops who have been guarding the square for days had
been keeping the two sides apart earlier in the day, but when
the clashes erupted they did not intervene. Most took shelter
behind or inside the armored vehicles and tanks stationed at the
entrances to the square.
Some anti-Mubarak protesters begging soldiers to help.
"Why don't you protect us?" some shouted, but the troops replied
they did not have orders to do so and told people to go home.
Many in the Tahrir rally — who for days have showered the
military with love for its neutral stance — now accused the
troops had intentionally allowed the attackers into the square.
"The army is neglectful. They let them in," said 52-year-old
protester Emad Nafa.
The new tensions began to emerge immediately following Mubarak's
speech Tuesday night. Later in the night, clashes erupted
between pro- and anti-government demonstrators in the
Mediterranean city of Alexandria, while in Cairo groups of
Mubarak supporters took to the streets, some carrying knifes and
sticks.
Gatherings of Mubarak supporters were more hostile to
journalists and foreigners. Two Associated Press correspondents
and several other journalists were roughed up during various
such gatherings. State TV reported Tuesday night that foreigners
were caught distributing anti-Mubarak leaflets, apparently
trying to depict the movement as foreign-fueled.
The violence could represent a dangerous new chapter in the
nearly 10 days of upheaval that has shaken Egypt, which has
already taken a series of dramatic and unpredictable twists.
After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by
unrest in Tunisia took to the streets on Jan. 25 and mounted a
once-unimaginable series of demonstrations across this nation of
80 million. Initially, police cracked down hard with brutal and
deadly clashes on the demonstrators. Then police withdrew
completely from the streets for the day, opening a wave of
looting, armed robberies and arson — largely separate from the
protests themselves — that stunned Egyptians.
But since Sunday, the army moved in to take control and the
situation became more peaceful. The military announced it would
not stop protests. As a result, the demonstrations swelled
dramatically, protesters gained momentum and enthusiasm and many
believed Mubarak's immediate fall was at hand. The United States
put intense pressure on Mubarak to bring his rule to an end
while ensuring a stable handover.
Wednesday's events could mean the regime has had enough, and
that it and the military aim to ensure the end of the unrest
after the 82-year-old Mubarak made the concession of announcing
he would not run for a new six-year term in September elections.
As if to show the public the crisis was ending, the government
began to reinstate Internet service after days of an
unprecedented cutoff. State TV announced the easing of a
nighttime curfew, which now runs from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. instead
of 3 p.m. to 8 a.m.
Mubarak supporters were on the street in significant numbers for
the first time on Wednesday. Across the Nile River from the
chaos in Tahrir Square, around 20,000 pro-government
demonstrators held a rally in front of Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque in
the upper-class neighborhood of Mohandiseen, after notices on
state TV calling for attendance.
They waved Egyptian flags, their faces painted with the
black-white-and-red national colors, and carried a large printed
banner with Mubarak's face as police officers surrounded the
area and directed traffic. They cheered as a military helicopter
swooped overhead.
Some appeared to be the sort of young toughs that the opposition
accuses the regime of paying to be its fist in the streets.
But the large majority were middle-class families, some of whom
said Mubarak's concessions were enough and that they feared
continued instability and shortages of food and other supplies
if protests continue.
"I want the people in Tahrir Square to understand that Mubarak
gave his word that he will give them the country to them through
elections, peacefully, now they have no reason for
demonstrations," said Ali Mahmoud, 52, who identified himself as
middle-class worker from Menoufia, a Nile Delta province north
of Cairo.
The movement against Mubarak, meanwhile, was working to prevent
any slipping in its ranks after the speech and resist any
sentiment that the concession may have been enough.
One protest organizer said the regime was going all out to
pressure people to stop protesting.
"Starting with the emotional speech of Mubarak, to the closure
of banks, the shortage of food and commodities and deployment of
thugs to intimidate people, these are all means to put pressure
on the people," said Ahmed Abdel-Hamid, a representative of the
Revolutionary Committee, one of several youth groups that
organized the protests.
The movement is fueled by deep frustration with an autocratic
regime blamed for ignoring the needs of the poor and allowing
corruption and official abuse to run rampant. Tuesday's massive
rally in Tahrir showed a large cross-section of Egyptian
society.
In his 10-minute speech Tuesday night, Mubarak emphasized the
theme that he has often used in justifying his rule during his
nearly three decades in power — that he can keep stability. Now
he was promising to do so as he heads out the door.
The president, who almost never admits to reversing himself
under pressure, insisted that even if the protests demanding his
ouster had not broken out, he would not have sought a sixth term
in September.
Somber but firm — without an air of defeat — he said he would
serve out the rest of his term working "to accomplish the
necessary steps for the peaceful transfer of power." He said he
will carry out amendments to rules on presidential elections.
The step came after heavy pressure from his top ally, the United
States. Soon after Mubarak's address, President Barack Obama
said at the White House that he had spoken with Mubarak and "he
recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable and a change
must take place." Obama said he told Mubarak that an orderly
transition must be meaningful and peaceful, must begin now and
must include opposition parties.
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