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Mubarak Loyalists Attack Protesters
News24.com
Several thousand supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, including some riding
horses and camels and wielding whips, attacked anti-government protesters on
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.
A military spokesperson appeared on state TV on Wednesday and asked the
protesters to disperse so life in Egypt could get back to normal. 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 on 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 centre.
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. |
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