Protesters and regime supporters skirmished in a second day of rock-throwing battles at a central Cairo square while new lawlessness spread around the city. New looting and arson erupted, and gangs of thugs supporting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attacked repo-rters, foreigners and rights workers while the Army rounded up foreign journalists.
The government increasingly spread an image that foreigners were fueling the turmoil and supporting the tens of thousands in the street who for more than 10 days have demanded the immediate ouster of Mubarak, this country’s unquestioned ruler for nearly three decades. “When there are demonstrations of this size, there will be foreigners who come and take advantage and they have an agenda to raise the energy of the protesters,” vice-president Omar Suleiman said in an interview on state TV.
Pro-government mobs beat foreign journalists with sticks on the streets outside Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the protests. Dozens of journalists, including ones from the Washington Post and the New York Times, were reported detained by security forces. One Greek print journalist was stabbed in the leg with a screwdriver, and a photographer was punched in the face by attackers who smashed some of his equipment. The Arabic news network Al-Arabiya pleaded on an urgent news scroll for the Army to protect its offices and journalists, and Al-Jazeera said two of its cor-respondents were attacked.
Under an onslaught of international condemnation for the assault on protesters by pro-Mubarak rioters that sparked the renewed wave of turmoil, the government earlier on Thursday offered a series of gestures trying to calm the fury. The Prime Minister apologised for Wednesday’s assault and acknowledged it may have been organised. The vice-president promised that Mubarak’s son — Gamal — would not run to succeed his father in presidential elections in September, and prosecutors announced an assets freeze and travel ban on three former ministers who were among the most unpopular regime figures.
But the gestures appeared likely to be swept away by the turmoil around Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, which for the past 10 days has been the centre of the unprecedented movement demanding Mubarak’s ouster. Protesters accuse the regime of organising a force of paid thugs and police in civilian clothes to attack them Wednesday afternoon, sparking the violence that was still raging after nightfall Thursday.
Mubarak supporters, who were largely being beaten back by protesters in the square, launched a series of attacks and harassment against journalists, and the US state department condemned what it called a “concerted campaign to intimidate” the media. Foreign journalists were beaten with sticks and fists by pro-government mobs on Cairo’s streets on Thursday and dozens were reported detained by security forces.
The Egyptian military rounded up journalists on Thursday after they came under attack from supporters of President Mubarak who have been assaulting anti-government protesters. The US state department condemned what it called a “concerted campaign to intimidate” foreign journalists in Egypt. State department spokesman P.J. Crowley said via Twitter that the campaign against journalists is intended to interfere with their reporting, and “we condemn such actions”. An Associated Press reporter saw eight foreign journalists detained by the military near the PM’s office, not far from Tahrir Square.
Lawlessness that had largely eased since the weekend flared anew. A fire raged in a major supermarket outside Sheikh Zayed, a Cairo suburb, and looters were ransacking the building. A residential building neighbouring a five-star hotel on the Nile river cornice was also ablaze, blocks away from Tahrir. Other fires erupted in the Cairo district of Shubra, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.
At least eight people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the fighting in and around Tahrir. The military finally took its first muscular action after a barrage of deadly automatic weapons fire against the protesters before dawn Thursday. Soldiers pushed back the pro-government attackers and took up positions between the two sides. But then on Thursday afternoon the soldiers stepped aside as the anti-government side surged ahead in the afternoon in resumed clashes.
With volleys of stones, the protesters pushed back their rivals. The battle centred on and under an overpass, where heavy gunfire was heard. At least one wounded person was carried away.
Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq acknowledged the attack “seemed to have been organised” and said elements had infiltrated what began as a demonstration against the protesters to turn it violent. But he said he did not know who, promising an investigation into who was behind it. “I offer my apology for everything that happened yesterday because it’s neither logical nor rational,” Mr Shafiq told state TV. “Everything that happened yesterday will be investigated so everyone knows who was behind it.”
Shafiq, a former Air Force general appointed by Mubarak over the weekend, said he was willing to go to Tahrir to meet protesters but urged them to disperse. At a press conference aired on state TV, Mr Shafiq defended Mr Mubarak’s announcement this week that he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term. “Would it be dignified for a nation for its President to leave immediately? ... There are ethics that must be observed.”
The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, whose vigil in Tahrir Square had been peaceful for days, raised international outrage. It brought a sharp rebuke from Washington, which sends Egypt $1.5 billion a year in aid. “If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
The anti-Mubarak movement has vowed to intensify protests to force the President out by Friday. In a speech Tuesday night, Mr Mubarak refused to step down immediately, saying he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term — a halfway concession rejected by the protesters.
On Thursday, a sense of victory ran through the protesters, even as they organised their ranks in the streets in case of a renewed assault. “Thank God we managed to protect the whole area,” said Abdul-Rahman, a taxi driver among thousands who hunkered down in the square through the night against the thousands besieging the entrances. “We prevented the pro-Mubarak people from storming the streets leading to the square.” Bands of Mubarak supporters moved through side streets, trading volleys of stone-throwing with the protesters and attacking cars to stop supplies from reaching the protest camp. One band stopped a car, ripped open the trunk and found boxes of juice, water and food, which they took before forcing the driver to flee. The Mubarak backers seethed with anger at a protest movement that state TV and media have depicted as causing the chaos and paralysing businesses and livelihoods. “You in Tahrir are the reason we can’t live a normal life,” one screamed as he threw stones in a side street.
The anti-Mubarak youth posted sentries on the roofs and balconies of buildings around the square to raise the alert of any approaching attackers and rain stones on them. Other look-outs in the streets banged metal poles against pedestrian barriers alarm when they sighted incoming Mubarak backers.
A large number had the trimmed beards of Muslim conservatives, a sign of how the Muslim Brotherhood a major role in the fight. Wednesday’s assault began in the afternoon, when thousands of pro-Mubarak attackers broke into the square where some 10,000 protesters were gathered. Among the attackers were men who charged in on horses and camels, lashing people with whips. Anti-Mubarak demonstrators traded showers of rocks and other projectiles in a counter-assault that drove their assailants out of the square within hours. The protesters took Army trucks and set up an ad-hoc front line on the northern edge of the square, near the Egyptian Museum. The two sides traded volleys of rocks and Molotov cocktails for much of the night.
The escalation came around 4 am when sustained bursts of automatic gunfire and single shots rattled the darkness for more than two hours. Protest organiser Mustafa el-Naggar said the gunfire came from at least three locations in the distance Soon after, the military moved.
Four tanks cleared a highway overpass from which Mubarak supporters had hurled rocks and firebombs at protesters. On the streets below, several hundred soldiers carrying rifles lined up between the two sides, pushing the pro-government fighters back and blocking the main battle lines in front of the famed Egyptian Museum and at other entrances to the square.