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Mubarak orders army to back police against Egypt unrest
Reuters - 1 hour 19 minutes ago
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By Shaimaa Fayed and Yasmine Saleh
CAIRO - President Hosni Mubarak sent troops and armoured cars into Egyptian cities on Friday in an attempt to quell street fighting and mass protests demanding an end to his 30-year rule.
Mubarak, facing a challenge that could send shock waves through the Middle East, declared a night-time curfew. But thousands stayed out on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, epicentre of protests in the last four days; some thronged around mounted armoured cars, cheering and waving flags.
Medical sources said at least five protesters had been killed and 870 wounded on a day that saw security forces using rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds.
"How can they do this? Instead of helping the people who are fighting for our rights, these people are dancing with the devil," Zeinab Abdel Fattah, 17, said.
"I don't care for politics and I'm a coward, but I will soon join in because I can't watch them kill our boys."
Demonstrations involving tens of thousands of people were the biggest and bloodiest in four consecutive days of protests by people fed up with unemployment, poverty, corruption and the lack of freedom under Mubarak.
Protesters shouted "Down, Down, Hosni Mubarak," some throwing stones at police.
Mubarak has built his power and international support by citing an Islamist threat to the country. But the Islamist opposition appear to have played little if any role in this week's protests.
The unrest, which has raised fears of instability in other authoritarian Middle Eastern countries, hit global financial markets. Investors turned to the dollar and U.S. Treasuries as safe havens, while stocks fell around the world and crude oil prices rose.
Friday evening marked the first time the army had been put onto the streets. It was not immediately clear what role it would play or how troops would react to the protesters.
A Reuters photographer saw people entering one of the buildings belonging to the National Democratic Party and walking out with chairs, carpets and other items.
FIRES
As darkness fell, tracked armoured cars took up positions in key cities.
"The armed forces started to deploy forces in the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez as a first stage in implementing the decree...imposing a curfew starting from 6 p.m.," the official news agency reported.
Some 2,000-3,000 people encircled a military vehicle near Cairo's Tahrir square, a Reuters witness said. They climbed on it, shaking hands with the soldiers, and chanted: "The army and the people are united" and "The revolution has come."
Shots were heard near parliament and TV showed the headquarters of the ruling party in flames, the blaze lighting up the night sky. Al Arabiya television said protesters forced their way into the state television building, but broadcasts there continued as normal.
In the eastern city of Suez, site of the strategically crucial canal, armoured cars deployed in front of the charred remains of a police station, a Reuters witness said. He said the offices of the telecoms company Vodaphone were looted.
Dozens of protesters climbed on the military vehicles in Suez. They talked to soldiers who attempted to wave them off.
The unrest in Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere was triggered by the overthrow two weeks ago of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Al Ben Ali.
The events pose a quandary for the United States, which has professed its wish for democracy to spread across the Middle East. Mubarak, however, has been a close Washington ally for many years and the recipient of huge amounts of military aid.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was deeply concerned by violence used by the security forces against the protesters and she urged the government to restrain them.
Snatch squads of plain clothes security men dragged off suspected ringleaders. At the Fatah mosque in central Ramses Square in Cairo, several thousand people were penned in and tear gassed.
Protesters often quickly dispersed and regrouped.
Some held banners saying: "Everyone against one" and chanted "Peaceful peaceful peaceful, no violence." Others threw shoes at and stamped on posters of Mubarak.
"Leave, leave, Mubarak, Mubarak, the plane awaits you," people chanted.
Prominent activist Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Laureate, was briefly penned in by police after he prayed at a mosque in the Giza area but he later took part in a peaceful march with supporters. Arabiya television said later police had "asked" him to stay home but this could not be confirmed.
WAFD PARTY CALLS FOR INTERIM GOVERNMENT
In some parts of Cairo, protests were peaceful. Dozens of people prayed together on one road. In Giza, on the city outskirts, marchers shook hands with the police who let them pass peacefully.
It is far from a foregone conclusion that the protesters will force Mubarak out given the strength of the security forces in Egypt.
"... the Egyptian security apparatus ... over the years has developed a vested interest in the survival of President Mubarak's regime," said Amon Aran, a Middle East expert at London's City University.
"This elaborate apparatus has demonstrated over the past few days that it is determined to crush political dissent," he said.
The head of the opposition Wafd party, Sayyid al-Badawi, said Egypt needed a period of transitional rule, new parliamentary elections and an amended constitution to prevent a president serving for more than two six-year terms.
Wafd, a decades old liberal, nationalist party, boycotted the parliament election in November saying the vote was rigged in favour of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party.
Before Friday's clashes, at least five people had been killed over the four days, one of them a police officer. Police have arrested several hundred people.
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood opposition group, including at least 8 senior officials, were rounded up overnight. The government has accused the Brotherhood of planning to exploit the protests.
Many protesters are young men and women. Two thirds of Egypt's 80 million people are below 30 and many have no jobs. About 40 percent of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day.
Elections were due to be held in September and until now few had doubted that Mubarak would remain in control or bring in a successor in the shape of his 47-year-old son Gamal.
Father and son deny that Gamal is being groomed for the job.
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