CAIRO (AP) — Embattled President Hosni Mubarak says he has asked his Cabinet to resign in his first appearance on television since protests erupted demanding his ouster.
He says he will press ahead with social, economic and political reforms. He calls anti-government protests part of plot to destabilize Egypt and destroy the legitimacy of his regime.
He is defending security forces' crackdown on protesters.
Protesters have seized the streets of Cairo, battling police with stones and firebombs, burning down the ruling party headquarters, and defying a night curfew enforced by a military deployment. It is the peak of unrest posing the most dire threat to Mubarak in his three decades of authoritarian rule.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's military deployed on the streets of Cairo to enforce a nighttime curfew after the sun set Friday on a day of rioting and violent chaos that was a major escalation in the challenge to authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
In the strongest sign yet that the violent suppression of the largest anti-government protests in decades is costing Egypt the support of its key ally in Washington, the U.S. demanded an end to the crackdown and an administration official said America will review its stand on providing aid to Egypt based on unfolding events.
One protester was killed in demonstrations that stretched across nearly half the provinces in Egypt, bringing the death toll for four days of protests to eight.
Thousands in the capital Cairo defied the curfew and tried to storm two major government buildings — the state TV and the Foreign Ministry. The army escorted TV employees out of the building. Others were praying on the streets after nightfall to show defiance.
Flames rose up across a number of cities from burning tires and police cars. Even the ruling party headquarters in Cairo was ablaze in the outpouring of rage, bitterness and utter frustration with a regime seen as corrupt, heavy-handed and neglectful of grinding poverty that afflicts nearly half of the 80 million Egyptians. Hundreds were looting television sets and electric fans from the burning complex of buildings used by the ruling party.
A bank was also looted and Egypt's national carrier EgyptAir suspended flights to Cairo for 12 hours.
Internet and cell phone services, at least in Cairo, appeared to be largely cut off since overnight in the most extreme measure so far to try to hamper protesters form organizing. However, that did not prevent tens of thousands from flooding the streets, emboldened by the recent uprising in Tunisia — another North African Arab nation.
"I can't believe our own police, our own government would keep beating up on us like this," said Cairo protester Ahmad Salah, 26. "I've been here for hours and gassed and keep going forward, and they keep gassing us, and I will keep going forward. This is a cowardly government and it has to fall. We're going to make sure of it."
Even Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, one of the country's leading pro-democracy advocates, was under house arrest after joining the protests.
"It's time for this government to change," said Amal Ahmed, a 22-year-old protester. "I want a better future for me and my family when I get married."
Mubarak has not been seen publicly or heard from since the protests began Tuesday and the sustained and intensifying demonstrations raised serious questions about whether he can ride it out. While he may still have a chance, his choices are limited, and all are likely to lead to a loosening of his grip on power.
The Obama administration has publicly counseled him to introduce reforms and refrain from using violence against the protesters. The U.S. has also provided the country with tens of billions of dollars in aid since it made peace with Israel in 1978. Last year, Egypt got more than $1.5 billion in economic support and military assistance from the U.S.
President Barack Obama convened his national security team on the growing protests in Egypt as aides voice concern.
After sundown, the military deployed for the first time since the crisis began. A convoy of armored personnel carriers rolled down the picturesque corniche that runs along the Nile in central Cairo. They were not met by the anger vented all day long against the hated police, who have a reputation for brutality.
Instead, hundreds lined the street, waving and cheering at the troops. They showed their sympathy by climbing up on the vehicles and trying to shake hands and cheering military helicopters in the air. Some chanted pro-army slogans.
However, on one bridge over the Nile, protesters tried to block some military vehicles with metal barricades.
Throughout the day, protesters rocked, overturned and firebombed armored police carriers and smashed their windows.
In one of many astonishing scenes Friday, thousands of anti-government protesters wielding rocks, glass and sticks chased hundreds of riot police away from the main square in downtown Cairo and several of the policemen stripped off their uniforms and badges and joined the demonstrators.
An Associated Press reporter saw the protesters cheering the police who joined them, hoisting them on their shoulders in one of the many dramatic and chaotic scenes across Egypt.
After chasing the police, thousands of protesters were able to flood into the huge Tahrir Square downtown. They had been kept out most of the day by a very heavy police presence.
The unrest began when tens of thousands poured into the streets after noon prayers in the mosques, stoning and confronting police who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas.
Groups of thousands of protesters, some chanting "out, out, out," defied a ban that has been in place for days on any gatherings and turned out at different venues across Cairo, a city of about 18 million people. Some marched toward major squares and across scenic Nile bridges.
As the sun set, burning tires, buildings and cars sent up plumes of black smoke across the cityscape. Security officials said there were protests in at least 11 of the country's 28 provinces.
In one of the many signs of chaos and confusion, state TV made conflicting announcements on how extensive the night curfew is — at first saying it was in force only in Cairo, Alexandria and the flashpoint city of Suez. It later announced the curfew was nationwide, but then retracted it and said it was only in the three cities.
In Cairo, one of the buildings burning in the ruling party's complex was near the Egyptian Museum, which is one of the country's best-known tourist attractions and home to the treasures of King Tutankhamun.
The protesters were energized by the return of ElBaradei on Thursday night after a month abroad. He declared he was prepared to lead the opposition to a regime change. When he joined protesters after noon prayers, police fired water cannons at him and his supporters. They used batons to beat some of ElBaradei's supporters, who surrounded him to protect him.
A soaking wet ElBaradei was trapped inside a mosque while hundreds of riot police laid siege to it, firing tear gas in the streets around so no one could leave. Tear gas canisters set several cars ablaze outside the mosque and several people fainted and suffered burns.
When he returned home, police stationed outside told him he was not allowed to leave again.
Abeer Ahmed, a 31-year-old woman who showed up for ElBaradei with her toddler, said she has a law degree but makes a living cleaning homes.
"Nothing good is left in the country," she said. "Oppression is growing."
Some of the most serious violence Friday was in Suez, where protesters seized weapons stored in a police station and asked the policemen inside to leave the building before they burned it down. They also set ablaze about 20 police trucks parked nearby. Demonstrators exchanged fire with policemen trying to stop them from storming another police station and one protester was killed in the gun battle.
In the upscale Mohandiseen neighborhood, at least 10,000 were marching toward the city center chanting "down, down with Mubarak." The crowd later swelled to about 20,000 as they made their way through residential areas.
Residents looking on from apartment block windows waved and whistled in support. Some waved the red, white and black Egyptian flags. The marchers were halted as they tried to cross a bridge over the Nile, when police fired dozens of tear gas canisters.
In downtown Cairo, people on balconies tossed soft drink cans and bottles of water to protesters on the streets below to douse their eyes, as well as onions and lemons to sniff, to cut the sting of the tear gas.
At Ramsis square in the heart of the city, thousands clashed with police as they left the al-Nur mosque after prayers. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets and some of the tear gas was fired inside the mosque where women were taking refuge. Hundreds later broke through police cordons to head to the main downtown square, Tahrir. But they were stopped by police firing tear gas.
Near Tahrir, hundreds of riot police in a cluster moved in, anticipating the arrival of large crowds. A short while later, thousands of protesters marched across a bridge over the Nile and moved toward the square, where police began firing tear gas at them.
Hundreds of protesters played a cat-and-mouse game with riot police in a square just behind the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square. Police were using tear gas and the protesters responded with rocks and chants of "illegitimate, illegitimate," a reference to Mubarak's regime.
Later, television footage showed a chaotic and violent scene where protesters were throwing rocks down on police from a highway overpass near the square, while a police vehicle sped through the crowd spraying tear gas on demonstrators.
By the end of the day, the city streets were littered with rocks and debris.
In Assiut in southern Egypt, several thousand demonstrators clashed with police that set upon them with batons and sticks, chasing them through side streets. The clashes continued into the night.
A Facebook page run by protesters listed their demands. They want Mubarak to declare that neither he nor his son will stand for next presidential elections; dissolve the parliament and hold new elections; end the emergency laws giving police extensive powers of arrest and detention; release all prisoners including protesters and those who have been in jail for years without charge or trial; and immediately fire the interior minister, who is in charge of the police.
Mubarak has not said yet whether he will stand for another six-year term as president in elections this year. He has never appointed a deputy and is thought to be grooming his son Gamal to succeed him despite popular opposition. According to leaked U.S. memos, hereditary succession also does not meet with the approval of the powerful military.
Mubarak and his government have shown no hint of concessions to the protesters who want political reform and a solution to rampant poverty, unemployment and rising food prices.
Continuing the heavy-handed methods used by the security forces the past three days would probably buy the Mubarak regime a little time but could strengthen the resolve of the protesters and win them popular sympathy.
The alternative is to introduce a package of political and economic reforms that would end his party's monopoly on power and ensure that the economic liberalization policies engineered by his son and heir apparent Gamal over the past decade benefit the country's poor majority.
He could also lift the emergency laws in force since 1981, loosen restrictions on the formation of political parties and publicly state whether he will stand for another six-year term in elections this year.
Egypt's four primary Internet providers — Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat Misr — all stopped moving data in and out of the country at 12:34 a.m., according to a network security firm monitoring the traffic. Telecom experts said Egyptian authorities could have engineered the unprecedented cutoff with a simple change to the instructions for the companies' networking equipment.
The Internet appeared to remain cut off in Cairo but was restored in some smaller cities Friday morning. Cell-phone text and Blackberry Messenger services were all cut or operating sporadically in what appeared to be a move by authorities to disrupt the organization of demonstrations.
Authorities appear to have been disrupting social networking sites, used as an organizing tool by protesters, throughout the week. Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger have all seen interruptions.
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Associated Press reporter Sarah El Deeb contributed to this report from Cairo.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
