Heavy gunfire rings out in Cairo protest square

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Heavy gunfire rings out in Cairo protest square

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press Hadeel Al-shalchi, Associated Press – 31

mins ago

CAIRO – Bursts of heavy gunfire rained into Cairo's Tahrir Square before dawn

Thursday, killing at least three anti-government demonstrators among crowds

trying to hold the site after a dramatic assault hours earlier by supporters of

President Hosni Mubarak, according to a protest organizer.

Sustained bursts of automatic weapons fire and powerful single shots rattled

into the square starting at around 4 a.m. and continued for more than two hours.

Protest organizer Mustafa el-Naggar said he saw the bodies of three dead

protesters being carried toward an ambulance. He said the gunfire came from at

least three locations in the distance and that the Egyptian military, which has

ringed the square with tank squads for days to try to keep some order, did not

intervene.

Footage from AP Television News showed one tank spreading a thick smoke screen

along a highway overpass just to the north of the square in an apparent attempt

to deprive attackers of a high vantage point. The two sides seemed to be

battling for control of the overpass, which leads to a main bridge over the

Nile.

In the darkness, groups of men hurled firebombs and rocks along the bridge,

where a wrecked car sat engulfed in flames. Others dragged two apparently

lifeless bodies from the area.

Egypt's health minister did not answer a phone call seeking confirmation of the

number killed.

Throughout Wednesday, Mubarak supporters charged into the square on horses and

camels brandishing whips while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what

appeared to be an orchestrated assault against protesters trying to topple

Egypt's leader of 30 years. Three people died in that earlier violence and 600

were injured.

The protesters accused Mubarak's regime of unleashing a force of paid thugs and

plainclothes police to crush their unprecedented nine-day-old movement, a day

after the 82-year-old president refused to step down. They showed off police ID

badges they said were wrested from their attackers. Some government workers said

their employers ordered them into the streets.

Mustafa el-Fiqqi, a top official from the ruling National Democratic Party, told

The Associated Press that businessmen connected to the ruling party were

responsible for what happened.

The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, who

had kept a peaceful vigil in Tahrir Square for five days, prompted a sharp

rebuke from the Obama administration.

" If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop

immediately, " said White House Press Secretary Gibbs.

The clashes marked a dangerous new phase in Egypt's upheaval: the first

significant violence between government supporters and opponents. The crisis

took a sharp turn for the worse almost immediately after Mubarak rejected the

calls for him to give up power or leave the country, stubbornly proclaiming he

would die on Egyptian soil.

His words were a blow to the protesters. They also suggest that authorities want

to turn back the clock to the tight state control enforced before the protests

began.

Mubarak's supporters turned up on the streets Wednesday in significant numbers

for the first time. Some were hostile to journalists and foreigners. Two

Associated Press correspondents and several other journalists were roughed up in

Cairo. State TV had reported that foreigners were caught distributing

anti-Mubarak leaflets, apparently trying to depict the movement as

foreign-fueled.

After midnight, 10 hours after the clashes began, the two sides were locked in a

standoff at a street corner, with the anti-Mubarak protesters hunkered behind a

line of metal sheets hurling firebombs back and forth with government backers on

the rooftop above. The rain of bottles of flaming gasoline set nearby cars and

wreckage on the sidewalk ablaze.

The scenes of mayhem were certain to add to the fear that is already running

high in this capital of 18 million people after a weekend of looting and

lawlessness and the escape of thousands of prisoners from jails in the chaos.

Soldiers surrounding Tahrir Square fired occasional shots in the air throughout

the day but did not appear to otherwise intervene in the fierce clashes and no

uniformed police were seen. Most of the troops took shelter behind or inside the

armored vehicles and tanks stationed at the entrances to the square.

" Why don't you protect us? " some protesters shouted at the soldiers, who replied

they did not have orders to do so and told people to go home.

" The army is neglectful. They let them in, " said Emad Nafa, a 52-year-old among

the protesters, who for days had showered the military with affection for its

neutral stance.

Some of the worst street battles raged near the Egyptian Museum at the edge of

the square. Pro-government rioters blanketed the rooftops of nearby buildings

and hurled bricks and firebombs onto the crowd below — in the process setting a

tree ablaze inside the museum grounds. Plainclothes police at the building

entrances prevented anti-Mubarak protesters from storming up to stop them.

The two sides pummeled each other with chunks of concrete and bottles at each of

the six entrances to the sprawling plaza, where 10,000 anti-Mubarak protesters

tried to fend off more than 3,000 attackers who besieged them. Some on the

pro-government side waved machetes, while the square's defenders filled the air

with a ringing battlefield din by banging metal fences with sticks.

In one almost medieval scene, a small contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on

horseback and camels rushed into the anti-government crowds, trampling several

people and swinging whips and sticks. Protesters dragged some riders from their

mounts, throwing them to the ground and beating their faces bloody. The horses

and camels appeared to be ones used to give tourists rides around Cairo.

Dozens of men and women pried up pieces of the pavement with bars and ferried

the piles of ammunition in canvas sheets to their allies at the front. Others

directed fighters to streets needing reinforcements.

The protesters used a subway station as a makeshift prison for the attackers

they managed to catch. They tied the hands and legs of their prisoners and

locked them inside. People grabbed one man who was bleeding from the head, hit

him with their sandals and threw him behind a closed gate.

Some protesters wept and prayed in the square where only a day before they had

held a joyous, peaceful rally of a quarter-million, the largest demonstration so

far.

Egyptian Health Minister Ahmed Sameh Farid said three people died and at least

611 were injured in Tahir Square on Wednesday. One of those killed fell from a

bridge near the square; Farid said the man was in civilian clothes but may have

been a member of the security forces.

Farid did not say how the other two victims, both young men, were killed. It was

not clear whether they were government supporters or anti-Mubarak demonstrators.

After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by the uprising in

Tunisia took to the streets on Jan. 25 and mounted a once-unimaginable series of

demonstrations across this nation of 80 million. For the past few days,

protesters who camped out in Tahrir Square reveled in a new freedom — publicly

expressing their hatred for the Mubarak regime.

" After our revolution, they want to send people here to ruin it for us, " said

Ahmed Abdullah, a 47-year-old lawyer in the square.

Another man shrieked through a loudspeaker: " Hosni has opened the door for these

thugs to attack us. "

The pressure for demonstrators to clear the square mounted throughout the day,

beginning early when a military spokesman appeared on state TV and asked them to

disperse so life in Egypt could get back to normal.

It was a change in attitude by the army, which for the past few days had allowed

protests to swell with no interference and even made a statement saying they had

a legitimate right to demonstrate peacefully.

Then the regime began to rally its supporters in significant numbers for the

first time, demanding an end to the protest movement. Some 20,000 Mubarak

supporters held an angry but mostly peaceful rally across the Nile River from

Tahrir, responding to calls on state TV.

They said Mubarak's concessions were enough. He has promised not to run for

re-election in September, named a new government and appointed a vice president

for the first time, widely considered his designated successor.

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.

They were bitter at the jeers hurled at Mubarak.

" 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. "

The anti-Mubarak movement has vowed to intensify protests to force him out by

Friday.

State TV said Vice President Suleiman called " on the youth to heed the

armed forces' call and return home to restore order. " From the other side,

senior anti-Mubarak figure Mohamed ElBaradei demanded the military " intervene

immediately and decisively to stop this massacre. "

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke with Suleiman to condemn the

violence and urge Egypt's government to hold those responsible for it

accountable, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

In the early afternoon on Wednesday, around 3,000 pro-government demonstrators

broke through and surged among the protesters, according to an Associated Press

reporter at the scene.

They tore down banners denouncing the president, fistfights broke out, and

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.

The battle lines at each of the entrances surged back and forth for hours. Each

side's fighters stretched across the width of the four-lane divided boulevard,

hiding behind abandoned trucks and holding sheets of corrugated metal as shields

from the hail of stones.

At the heart of the square, young men with microphones sought to keep up morale.

" Stand fast, reinforcements are on the way, " said one. " Youth of Egypt, be

brave. " Groups of bearded men lined up to recite Muslim prayers before taking

their turn in the line of fire.

Bloodied young men staggered or were carried into makeshift clinics set up in

mosques and alleyways by the anti-government side.

Wednesday's events suggest the regime aims to put an end of the unrest to let

Mubarak shape the transition as he chooses over the next months. Mubarak has

offered negotiations with protest leaders over democratic reforms, but they have

refused any talks until he steps down.

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.

____

AP correspondents El Deeb, Hamza Hendawi, Diaa Hadid, Lee Keath,

Weissenstein and Maggie contributed to this report.