February 2, 2011
Three people are dead and more than 600 others injured after supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attacked anti-government protesters around Cairo's Tahrir Square, in an attempt to disperse demonstrators from the streets.
Egyptian Health Minister Ahmed Sameh Farid told The Associated Press that two men were taken from the square in ambulances. One had already died, while the other died later in hospital. Farid had reported the third fatality earlier, when he said a man was killed when he fell from a bridge near the square earlier Wednesday.
Farid said the man who fell from the bridge is believed to have been a member of the country's security forces. However, he was dressed in civilian clothes at the time of his death. He said authorities are investigating the incident.
At least 611 people have been injured, Farid said.
In one area of intense fighting near the Egyptian Museum, pro-Mubarak demonstrators lined rooftops and threw bricks and firebombs onto the protesters below. Throughout Tahrir Square, Mubarak supporters and their opponents threw bottles and chunks of concrete at one another, while others engaged in fistfights that left them bruised and bloodied.
Makeshift health clinics were set up by the anti-government protesters in nearby mosques and alleyways to treat the wounded.
Late Wednesday, after state television broadcast an order for all protesters to leave the square, the crowd in Tahrir Square thinned, reported CTV's Lisa LaFlamme.
"The crowd is moving back. It has thinned dramatically, but it's the diehards that are out here now," LaFlamme told CTV News Channel.
LaFlamme reported that well after darkness fell, sporadic gunfire could be heard as pro- and anti-government demonstrators dug in their heels. The two sides lobbed Molotov cocktails at each other as they shielded themselves behind sheets of corrugated metal.
While the gunfire could merely be soldiers firing in the air to subdue the crowd, CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Martin Seemungal reported, LaFlamme reported that tanks that had moved into the area were turned toward the protesters, sending many of them running for cover.
Earlier the clashes between the two camps had left fires burning throughout the square, as well as in front of the famed Egyptian Museum. Efforts were underway to control the flames, LaFlamme said.
Wednesday's fighting marked the first mass display of support for Mubarak, the aging Egyptian leader who is blamed by protesters for an array of economic and social problems that have afflicted his people during his 30 years in power.
His supporters on the street told reporters Wednesday that they believed their lives had improved under Mubarak's rule and that the continuing demonstrations were plunging the country into chaos.
"We have been a stable country since the days of the Pharaohs. These demonstrators want to turn us into Somalia: poor and at war with itself," said Samir Hamid, a 58-year-old war veteran who can remember when Mubarak first took power.
Others said they felt the president had been insulted by the protests that have raged for the past nine days.
"I feel humiliated," said Mohammed Hussein, a 31-year-old factory worker. "He is the symbol of our country. When he is insulted, I am insulted."
On the anti-government side, some of the demonstrators accused the government of calling in supporters to attack them.
"After our revolution, they want to send people here to ruin it for us," said Ahmed Abdullah, a lawyer protesting in Tahrir Square. "Why do they want us to be at each other's throats, with the whole world watching us?"
The president's supporters grew in number from the previous evening and Seemungal said many carried flags that appeared as though they had been freshly handed out.
Early reports suggested that the two sides were involved in some small fistfights, but LaFlamme reported earlier Wednesday that the Tahrir Square clashes eventually involved rocks, fires, petrol bombs and even some gunfire.
On Twitter, LaFlamme described the clashes she saw on the street, including protesters on camels charging the crowd and pro-Mubarak protesters throwing clay pots at their opponents.
Ali Mikkawi, an Egyptian-Canadian who has been helping to organize protests in Cairo, said it was difficult to say who was behind the clashes on the pro-Mubarak side.
"It's just chaos," Mikkawi told CTV News Channel in a telephone interview from Cairo, who said anti-government protesters had discovered at least one pro-Mubarak supporter carrying police identification.
The Egyptian army's decision not to intervene in the clashes was indicative of the mostly "neutral stance" the army has taken since the widespread anti-Mubarak protests began late last month, Seemungal said.
Earlier Wednesday, the army asked the anti-government protesters to end their demonstrations against Mubarak, arguing that the protesters' message has been heard and that it is time to resume daily routines in Cairo.
Military spokesperson Ismail Etman went on television Wednesday to address the protesters, who have held continuous demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square for nine straight days.
Etman asked the protesters to stand down "out of love for Egypt," so that the country can chart a path back to stability.
"You have started coming out to express your demands and you are the ones capable of returning normal life to Egypt," Etman said.
"Your message has arrived, your demands have become known."
The escalating violence also led to swift condemnation from the international community.
On Wednesday, White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs said the U.S. "deplores and condemns the violence that is taking place in Egypt."
In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron said Egyptian authorities must move quickly to bring in political reforms, and said "if it turns out that the regime in any way has been sponsoring or tolerating this violence, that would be completely and utterly unacceptable." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was meeting Cameron in London Wednesday, also called the violence "unacceptable."
The 82-year-old Mubarak announced he will not run for office in upcoming elections this fall -- yet opposition groups involved in the demonstrations have indicated they want him to leave office as soon as possible.
Andre Pierre, a Middle East analyst at the United States Institute of Peace, said that while it is difficult to accurately project the level of public support for a new government, it is clear that opposition groups have the upper hand in the debate over how soon Mubarak should leave office.
"I suspect that the momentum towards Mubarak's departure is there and will continue and that in the next days, actually weeks, there is going to be a lot of negotiation aimed to speed up the process," Pierre told CTV's Canada AM from Washington on Wednesday morning.
Some Mubarak supporters said the protesters were asking for too much in demanding Mubarak leave office immediately.
"It's not like Mubarak can rub Aladdin's lamp and pull out a genie who will fix everything," said Fatima al-Shal, 41, when speaking to an Associated Press reporter in Egypt.
"We have to give them time to peacefully change power."
With files from The Associated Press
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