Police crack down on protesters in Egypt

Thousands of Egyptians have vented their rage against President Hosni Mubarak’s autocratic government for two days of protests that defied a ban on public gatherings.

Baton-wielding police responded with tear gas and beatings in a crackdown that has shown no tolerance for dissent.

Egypt’s largest anti-government protests in years echo the uprising in Tunisia, threatening to destabilise the leadership of one of the most important US allies in the Arab world.

The ability of the protesters to sustain the momentum for two days in the face of such a heavy-handed police response was a rare feat in this country.

One protester and a policeman were killed yesterday, bringing the two-day death toll to six.

Some 860 people have been rounded up, and Facebook, Twitter and mobile phones - key to organising protests – have been disrupted.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Egypt to adopt broad reforms and not crack down on the anti-government crowds.

She urged the Mubarak regime to “take this opportunity to implement political, economic and social reforms that will answer the legitimate interests of the Egyptian people”.

Still, there was no indication that Mr Mubarak, who has ruled with an iron fist for nearly 30 years, intends to relinquish power or make democratic or economic concessions, and no sign he would rein in his security forces.

The defiant demonstrations continued late into the night.

In Cairo, dozens of riot police with helmets and shields charged more than 2,000 marchers on a downtown boulevard along the Nile.

Smaller clashes broke out across the capital. In one, protesters stoned police, who responded with a volley of tear gas from a bridge over the Nile.

One protester, businessman Said Abdel-Motalib, called the civil unrest “a red light to the regime. This is a warning”.

In cities across Egypt, protesters incensed by Egypt’s grinding poverty, rising prices and high unemployment hurled rocks and firebombs at police and smashed the windows of military vehicles.

The Interior Ministry warned that police would not tolerate any gatherings, and thousands of security forces were out on the streets poised to move quickly against any unrest.

Many were plainclothes officers whose leather jackets and casual sweat shirts allowed them to blend in easily with protesters.

Thousands of policemen in riot gear and backed by armoured vehicles also took up posts in Cairo, on bridges across the Nile, at major intersections and squares, as well as outside key installations, including the state TV building and the headquarters of Mr Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party.

Police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of several hundred activists on a main thoroughfare, chasing them through side streets as both sides pelted each other with rocks while hundreds of onlookers watched.

Plainclothes officers shoved some into waiting vans, slapping them in the face.

Observing the clashes, Omima Maher, a 37-year-old housewife lamented her money woes.

“Everything is so horrible. I hope we can change it,” she said.