Thursday on protesters camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square, wounding
at least seven, witnesses said.
Al Arabiya television quoted a doctor at the scene as saying one
protester was killed when a barrage of gunfire rang out across the
square at around 0400 am (9 p.m. EST Wednesday). Another witness said
as many as 15 people had been wounded.
"People are too tired to be terrified," al Jazeera television quoted a
33-year-old woman in the square as saying.
But she said protesters who launched an unprecedented challenge to
Mubarak's 30-year-rule last week would not give up. "We cannot go back
at this point."
Mubarak promised on Tuesday to surrender power in September, angering
protesters who want him to quit immediately and prompting the United
States to say change "must begin now."
A day later, the army told reformists to go home and Mubarak backers,
throwing petrol bombs, wielding sticks and charging on camels and
horses, attacked protesters in Tahrir Square in what many saw as a
government-backed attempted crackdown.
Anti-Mubarak demonstrators hurled stones back and said the attackers
were police in plainclothes. The Interior Ministry denied the
accusation, and the government rejected international calls to end
violence and begin the transfer of power.
This apparent rebuff along with the spike in violence -- after days of
relatively calm demonstrations -- complicated U.S. calculations for an
orderly transition of power in Egypt.
In pointed comments, a senior U.S. official said it was clear that
"somebody loyal to Mubarak has unleashed these guys to try to
intimidate the protesters."
By nightfall on Wednesday, the protesters were still holding their
ground in Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the hub for protests over
oppression and economic hardship now into their 10th day.
Skirmishes continued well into the night and there was sporadic
gunfire, with blazes caused by firebombs.
After a brief period of calm, a barrage of gunfire could be heard
ringing out across the square.
"They fired at us many petrol bombs from above the bridge in the
northern end of Tahrir Square," said one witness.
At least 145 people have been killed so far and there have been
protests across the country. United Nations human rights chief Navi
Pillay said up to 300 people may have died.
STOP THE BLOODSHED
Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman earlier urged the 2,000
demonstrators in Tahrir Square to leave and observe a curfew to
restore calm. He said the start of dialogue with the reformists and
opposition depended on an end to street protests.
But protesters barricaded the square against pro-Mubarak supporters
trying to penetrate the makeshift cordon.
"This place will turn into a slaughterhouse very soon if the army does
not intervene," Ahmed Maher, who saw pro-Mubarak supporters with
swords and knives, told Reuters.
Officials said three people were killed in Wednesday's violence and a
doctor at the scene said over 1,500 were injured.
Reacting to the tumult in Egypt, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs
said that, "If any of the violence is instigated by the government it
should stop immediately."
Opposition figurehead Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate,
called on the army to intervene to stop the violence.
Urging protesters to clear the streets, the armed forces told them
their demands had been heard. But many were determined to occupy the
square until Mubarak quits.
Khalil, a man in his 60s holding a stick, blamed Mubarak supporters
and undercover security men for the clashes. "We will not leave," he
told Reuters. "Everybody stay put," he added.
"I'm inspired by today's events, however bloody and violent they are,
and I will stay with my brothers and sisters in Tahrir until I either
die or Mubarak leaves the country," said medical student Shaaban
Metwalli, 22, as night closed in.
An opposition coalition, which includes the Islamist Muslim
Brotherhood, said it would only negotiate with Suleiman, a former
intelligence chief appointed by Mubarak at the weekend, once the
president stepped down.
The crisis has alarmed the United States and other Western governments
who have regarded Mubarak as a bulwark of stability in a volatile
region, and has raised the prospect of unrest spreading to other
authoritarian Arab states.
President Barack Obama telephoned the 82-year-old Mubarak on Tuesday
to urge him to move faster on political transition.
"The message that the president delivered clearly to President Mubarak
was that the time for change has come," Gibbs said, adding: "Now means
now." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a call to Suleiman,
underlined that U.S. position.
But Mubarak dug in his heels on Wednesday. A Foreign Ministry
statement rejected U.S. and European calls for the transition to start
immediately, saying they aimed to "incite the internal situation" in
Egypt.
"This appears to be a clear rebuff to the Obama administration and to
the international community's efforts to try to help manage a peaceful
transition from Mubarak to a new, democratic Egypt," said Robert
Danin, a former senior U.S. official now at the Council on Foreign
Relations think tank.
ARMY ROLE CRUCIAL
The administration supplies the Egyptian army annually with about $1.3
billion in aid. But international backing for Mubarak, a stalwart of
the West's Middle East policy, a key player in the Middle East peace
process and defense against militant Islam, crumbled as he tried to
ride out the crisis.
France, Germany and Britain also urged a speedy transition.
Some of the few words of encouragement for him have come from oil
giant Saudi Arabia, a country seen by some analysts as vulnerable to a
similar outbreak of discontent.
Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, is also
watching the situation in its western neighbor nervously.
At the weekend, Mubarak reshuffled his cabinet and promised reform but
that was not enough for the pro-democracy movement.
One million people took to the streets of Egyptian cities on Tuesday.
Many protesters spoke of a new push on Friday to rally at Cairo's
presidential palace to dislodge Mubarak.
Oil prices fell back from 28-month highs, but North Sea Brent crude
was still more than $101 a barrel because of worries that unrest in
Egypt could kindle yet more political upheaval across the Middle East
and North Africa.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond, Patrick Werr, Dina Zayed,
Marwa Awad, Shaimaa Fayed, Alexander Dziadosz, Yasmine Saleh, and
Alison Williams in Cairo; Writing by Myra MacDonald; editing by Samia
Nakhoul)
