Egyptians on Turmoil, Cairo Clashes

Violence and turmoil in Cairo as pro- and anti-government supporters clash. We fill our airwaves with Egyptian voices.

For so many days, they were thrillingly peaceful in the mass protest aimed at removing Hosni Mubarak from power in Egypt.

Today, Mubarak’s crew moved into the streets.  Knives, clubs, horses, camels.  Riding down, beating the crowds that have been chanting for Mubarak to go. Everybody fighting. Mob chaos.

Egypt’s strongman said last night he will not stand for re-election. President Obama said a transition must begin now.  But what is actually happening now looks, suddenly, much uglier.

Guests:

Laura King, foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. She's in Cairo.

Ashraf Hegazy, executive director of The Dubai Initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He grew up in Egypt and around the world. His mother was his country’s first female diplomat.

Mona Eltahawy, columnist for Qatar’s Al Arab newspaper, the Jerusalem Report, Denmark’s Politiken and Metro Canada. Her columns have also appeared in the Washington Post and the International Herald Tribune.

Farah Safaan, a 22 -year-old Egyptian student now living in New York and studying journalism at the New York Film Academy.

Ibrahim el-Hudayby, Egyptian activist and political analyst. Until two years ago, he was a young leader in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

Latest news:

Pro- and anti-government supporters clash in Cairo

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and SARAH EL DEEB

Associated Press
CAIRO (AP) - Several thousand supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, including some riding horses and camels and wielding whips, attacked anti-government protesters Wednesday as Egypt's upheaval took a dangerous new turn. In chaotic scenes, the two sides pelted each other with stones, and protesters dragged attackers off their horses.

The turmoil was the first significant violence between supporters of the two camps in more than a week of anti-government protests. It erupted after Mubarak went on national television the night before and rejected demands he step down immediately and said he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term.

Wednesday morning, a military spokesman appeared on state TV Wednesday and asked the protesters to disperse so life in Egypt could get back to normal. The announement could mark a major turn in the attitude of the army, which for the past two days has allowed protests to swell, reaching their largest size yet on Tuesday when a quarter-million peace packed into Cairo's central Tahrir Square.

Nearly 10,000 protesters massed again in Tahrir on Wednesday morning, rejecting Mubarak's speech as too little too late and renewed their demands he leave immediately.

In the early afternoon Wednesday, an Associated Press reporter saw around 3,000 Mubarak supporters break through a human chain of anti-government protesters trying to defend thousands gathered in Tahrir.

Chaos erupted as they tore down banners denouncing the president. Fistfights broke out as they advanced across the massive square in the heart of the capital. The anti-government protesters grabbed Mubarak posters from the hands of the supporters and ripped them.

The two sides began hurling stones and bottles and sticks at each other, chasing each other as the protesters' human chains moved back to try to shield the larger mass of demonstrators at the plaza's center.

At one point, a small contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on horseback and camels rushed into the anti-Mubarak crowds, swinging whips and sticks to beat people. Protesters retaliated, dragging some from their mounts, throwing them to the ground and beating their faces bloody.

Protesters were seen running with their shirts or faces bloodied, some men and women in the crowd were weeping. A scent of tear gas wafted over the area, but it was not clear who had fired it.

The army troops who have been guarding the square had been keeping the two sides apart earlier in the day, but when the clashes erupted they did not intervene. Most took shelter behind or inside the armored vehicles and tanks stationed at the entrances to Tahrir.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)