Three people die as Cairo chaos escalates

SUPPORTERS of President Hosni Mubarak charged into Cairo’s central square on horseback and camels brandishing whips.

Others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault against anti-government protesters trying to topple Egypt’s leader of 30 years. Three people died and 600 were injured in the uncontrolled violence.

The protesters accused Mubarak’s regime of unleashing a force of paid thugs and plainclothes police to crush their unprecedented, nine-day-old movement demanding his ouster, a day after the president refused to step down.

They showed off police ID badges they said were wrested from their attackers. Some government workers said their employers ordered them into the streets.

Mustafa el-Fiqqi, a top official from the ruling National Democratic Party, said business connected to the ruling party was responsible for what happened.

The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, who had kept a peaceful vigil in Tahrir Square for five days, prompted one of the sharpest rebukes yet from the Obama administration.

“If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately,” warned White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

The clashes marked a dangerous new phase in Egypt’s upheaval: the first significant violence between government supporters and opponents. The crisis took a sharp turn for the worse almost immediately after Mubarak, 82, rejected calls for him to give up power or leave the country, and stubbornly proclaimed he would die on Egyptian soil.

His words were a sharp blow to the protesters and a signal to a country that had been holding its breath to see if Mubarak would fall that authorities want to turn back the clock to the tight state control that was enforced before last Tuesday.

Mubarak’s supporters turned up on the streets yesterday in significant numbers for the first time. Some were hostile to journalists and foreigners.

Two Associated Press correspondents and several other journalists said they were roughed up in Cairo. State TV had reported on Tuesday night that foreigners were caught distributing anti-Mubarak leaflets, apparently trying to depict the movement as foreign- fuelled.