Fear and loathing as Egypt chaos intensifies

PROTESTERS and regime supporters skirmished in a second day of rock-throwing battles at a central Cairo square while new lawlessness spread around the city.

New looting and arson erupted, and gangs of thugs supporting President Hosni Mubarak attacked reporters, foreigners and rights workers while the army rounded up foreign journalists.

Under an onslaught of international condemnation for the assault on protesters by pro-Mubarak rioters that sparked the renewed wave of turmoil, the government offered a series of gestures trying to calm the fury.

The prime minister apologised for Wednesday’s assault and acknowledged it may have been organised. The vice president promised that Mubarak’s son — Gamal — would not run to succeed his father in presidential elections in September, and prosecutors announced an assets freeze and travel ban on three former ministers who were among the most unpopular regime figures.

But the gestures appeared likely to be swept away by the turmoil around Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, which is now in its 11th day and has been the centre of the unprecedented movement demanding Mubarak’s ouster. Protesters accuse the regime of organising a force of paid thugs and police in civilian clothes to attack them on Wednesday, sparking the violence that still rages this morning.

Mubarak supporters, who were largely being beaten back by protesters in the square, launched a series of attacks and harassment against journalists, and the US State Department condemned what it called a “concerted campaign to intimidate” the media. Foreign journalists were beaten with sticks and fists by pro-government mobs on the streets of Cairo yesterday and dozens were reported detained by security forces.

Lawlessness that had largely eased since the weekend flared anew. A fire raged in a major supermarket outside Sheikh Zayed, a suburb of the capital, and looters were ransacking the building. A residential building neighbouring a 5-star hotel on the Nile River corniche was also ablaze, streets away from Tahrir. Other fires erupted in the Cairo district of Shubra, north of the centre, security officials said.

At least eight people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the fighting in and around Tahrir.

The military finally took its first muscular action after a barrage of deadly automatic weapons fire against the protesters before dawn yesterday. Soldiers pushed back the pro-government attackers and took up positions between the two sides.

But in the afternoon the soldiers stepped aside as the anti-government side surged ahead in new clashes.

With volleys of stones, the protesters pushed back their rivals onto a nearby highway overpass that their regime supporters had used as a high ground to batter them. The battle centred on and under the overpass, where heavy gunfire was heard.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq acknowledged that the attack “seemed to have been organised” and said elements had infiltratated what began as a demonstration against the protesters to turn it violent. But he said he did not know who, promising an investigation into who was behind it.

“I offer my apology for everything that happened yesterday because it’s neither logical nor rational,” Shafiq told state TV. “Everything that happened yesterday will be investigated.”

The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, whose vigil in Tahrir Square had been peaceful for days, raised international outrage. The anti-Mubarak movement has vowed to intensify protests to force the president out by today. In a speech Tuesday night, Mubarak refused to step down immediately, saying he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term.

“This process of transition must start now,” the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said in a statement.