protesters in Tahrir Square in central Cairo early Thursday, witnesses
said.
Witnesses said also that there were many people wounded by fire coming
from the October Bridge where partisans of embattled Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak were positioned.
Sporadic gunfire started around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) and could still be
heard, an AFP correspondent reported.
Egypt braced Thursday for another day of violence after backers of
Mubarak stormed the Cairo stronghold of anti-regime protesters,
sparking clashes.
Washington, which has called for restraint since demonstrations broke
out 10 days ago, deplored the violence against "peaceful protesters"
while UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the attacks on demonstrators were
"unacceptable."
The European Union added its voice Wednesday to calls from US
President Barack Obama for the transition from Mubarak's
three-decade-long rule to begin immediately after the veteran
president announced late on Tuesday that he would not seek re-election
in September.
But the Egyptian foreign ministry said such calls "sought to inflame
the internal situation," while Vice President Omar Suleiman, who was
appointed this week, insisted there could be no dialogue with the
opposition until all the protesters went home.
From early afternoon until well into the night, regime supporters and
opponents threw stones and battled with sticks and fists in Cairo's
Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the nine straight days of protests
that have rocked the Egyptian regime and sent shock waves around the
Arab world.
Tensions had been rising from early morning when Mubarak supporters
began staging their own rallies around Cairo, saying the president
represented stability amid growing insecurity, and branding as
"traitors" those who want his departure.
A hard core of tens of thousands of anti-regime protesters had
remained at Tahrir Square through the night, angry at the
82-year-old's refusal to step down immediately in line with the
demands of opposition leaders for a clean break with his regime.
Witnesses and AFP correspondents said bands of Mubarak supporters
raided the square without warning, some on camels and horses, creating
mayhem that quickly degenerated into violent clashes.
Regime supporters dropped concrete blocks on the opposition protesters
from the roofs and balconies of surrounding buildings.
The worst of the fighting was just outside the world-famous Egyptian
Museum, which was targeted by vandals last week.
Soldiers deployed in the square took cover from the projectiles after
initially standing on tanks to appeal in vain for calm.
After sundown, with Molotov cocktails being thrown, troops opened up
on the crowd with water hoses to disperse protesters. Two petrol bombs
landed inside the grounds of the museum.
Amnesty International's Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui rebuked the army, saying
it had "failed in its commitment to protect peaceful protesters. The
fact that such violence is allowed to continue as they stand there
begs the question whether they have orders not to interfere."
AFP correspondents saw scores of wounded carried to a makeshift
hospital in a mosque near Tahrir Square, and a medic there said the
injury toll ran into the hundreds.
Health Minister Ahmed Hosni Farid told state television 639 people
were wounded in the clashes in the square.
Although an AFP correspondent heard a number of gunshots and saw one
young man hit in the chest and evacuated, the minister insisted: "No
one was wounded by gun shots. The majority of the wounded were injured
by stones."
Both sides continued throwing rocks and skirmishing into the night,
with army and civilian ambulances coming to take the wounded away.
Anti-regime protesters stopped handing over pro-Mubarak militants to
the army as they said they were just being released. Instead, they
kept some 30 of those they captured at an improvised prison near a
metro station.
The captives were badly beaten, an AFP correspondent reported.
Several foreign journalists covering the confrontations in Cairo
became the target of violent attacks, a media watchdog and news
organisations said.
Correspondents, photographers and cameramen reporting on the fierce
clashes in Tahrir Square said that the Mubarak supporters were hostile
to the press.
Media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the
"shocking" attacks appeared to be in revenge for the coverage of nine
days of protests calling for the departure of Mubarak.
Protesters have said they will proceed with plans for a massive
protest on Friday, their designated "departure day" for Mubarak.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the attacks on the
protesters were a "direct threat" to the Egyptian people.
"We don't know who unleashed these thugs on the streets in Cairo...
Whoever they are, there needs to be accountability here. This was
clearly an attempt to intimidate the protesters," Crowley said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "If any of the violence is
instigated by the government, it should stop immediately."
Tensions rose after Mubarak addressed the nation late on Tuesday,
refusing to step down immediately, the key demand of the protesters
who have flooded the streets.
"My first responsibility is now to bring security and stability to the
nation to ensure a peaceful transition of power," he said.
Those remarks were seized upon by Obama, who spoke to Mubarak after
the speech, and announced on television that he had told the Egyptian
president an orderly transition "must begin now".
Pressed after Wednesday's bloody violence on what that meant, Obama's
spokesman said: "Now means yesterday.
"When we said now, we meant yesterday. What the people of Egypt want
to see is not some process that starts a week, a month or several
months from now," Gibbs added.
The European Union added its voice to those calls with foreign affairs
chief Catherine Ashton urging Mubarak to act "as quickly as possible."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that there was a
battle afoot in Egypt between those who favoured democracy and those
who wanted to enforce an Iranian-style radical Islamist system, that
could destabilise the key Middle East peace partner "for many years."
But the State Department spokesman played down such concerns.
"We would hope that the next government of Egypt will play a
constructive role in the peace process and will recognise the
importance of having a peaceful relationship with Israel," said
Crowley.
