Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Egypt News Update: Petrol Bombs, Shots Fired Against Anti-Mubarak Forces in Cairo; Oil Prices Increase Amid Crisis

Clashes rage in Tahrir Square

At least one dead and hundreds injured as pro-Mubarak supporters attack protesters seeking his ouster in central Cairo

Last Modified: 02 Feb 2011 17:41 GMT

At least one person has been killed and another 600 injured in continuing clashes between pro- and anti-government demonstrators in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Protesters from both sides threw stones at each other on Wednesday in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of ongoing opposition demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak for the past nine days

Al Jazeera correspondents, reporting from the scene, said clashes were still raging and that petrol bombs were being hurled.

"Someone - a few people actually - are dropping homemade bombs into the square from the buildings surrounding it," our online producer said.

Gunshots are also regularly ringing out of the square.

Earlier, witnesses said the military allowed thousands of pro-Mubarak supporters, armed with sticks and knives, to enter the square. Opposition groups said Mubarak had sent in thugs to suppress anti-government protests.

One of our correspondents said the army seemed to be standing by and facilitating the clashes. Latest reports suggest that the centre of the square is still in control of the protesters, despite the pro-Mubarak supporters gaining ground.

'Absolute mayhem'

Witnesses also said that pro-Mubarak supporters were dragging away protesters they had managed to grab and handing them over to security forces.

Salma Eltarzi, an anti-government protester, told Al Jazeera there were hundreds of wounded people.

"There are no ambulances in sight, and all we are using is Dettol," she said. "We are all so scared."

Aisha Hussein, a nurse, said dozens of people were being treated at a makeshift clinic in a mosque near the square.

She described a scene of "absolute mayhem", as protesters first began to flood into the clinic.

"People are coming in with multiple wounds. All kinds of contusions. We had one guy who needed stitches in two places on his face. Some have broken bones."

Meanwhile, another Al Jazeera correspondent said men on horseback and camels had ploughed into the crowds, as army personnel stood by.

At least six riders were dragged from their beasts, beaten with sticks by the protesters and taken away with blood streaming down their faces.

One of them was dragged away unconscious, with large blood stains on the ground at the site of the clash.

The worst of the fighting was just outside the world famous Egyptian Museum, which was targeted by looters last week.

Al Jazeera's correspondent added that a group of pro-government protesters took over army vehicles. They also took control of a nearby building and used the rooftop to throw concrete blocks, stones, and other objects.

Soldiers surrounding the square took cover from flying stones, and the windows of at least one army truck were broken. Some troops stood on tanks and appealed for calm but did not otherwise intervene.

Many of the pro-Mubarak supporters raised slogans like "Thirty Years of Stability, Nine Days of Anarchy".

Violence

Al Jazeera's Jane Dutton, also in Cairo, said that security guards have also been seen amongst the pro-Mubarak supporters, and it may be a precursor to the feared riot police arriving on the scene.

Dutton added that a journalist with the Al-Arabiya channel was stabbed during the clashes.

Fighting took place around army tanks deployed around the square, with stones bouncing off the armoured vehicles.

Several groups were involved in fist fights, and some were using clubs. The opposition also said many among the pro-Mubarak crowd were policemen in plain clothes.

"Members of security forces dressed in plain clothes and a number of thugs have stormed Tahrir Square," three opposition groups said in a statement.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent opposition figure, accused Mubarak of resorting to scare tactics. Opposition groups have reportedly also seized police identification cards amongst the pro-Mubarak demonstrators.

"I'm extremely concerned, I mean this is yet another symptom, or another indication, of a criminal regime using criminal acts," ElBaradei said.

"My fear is that it will turn into a bloodbath," he added, calling the pro-Mubarak supporters a "bunch of thugs".

ElBaradei has also urged the army to intervene.

"I ask the army to intervene to protect Egyptian lives," he told Al Jazeera, adding he said it should intervene "today" and not remain neutral.

Determined protesters

Despite the clashes, anti-government protesters seeking Mubarak's immediate resignation said they would not give up until Mubarak steps down.

Khalil, in his 60s and holding a stick, blamed Mubarak supporters and undercover security for the clashes.

"But we will not leave," he told Reuters. "Everybody stay put."

Mohammed el-Belgaty, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Al Jazeera the "peaceful demonstrations in Tahrir Square have been turned into chaos".

"The speech delivered by President Mubarak was very provocative as he used very sentimental words.

"Since morning, hundreds of these paid thugs started to demonstrate pretending to be supporting the President. Now they came to charge inside Tahrir Square armed with batons, sticks and some knives.

"Mubarak is asking the people to choose between him or chaos."

Ahead of Wednesday's clashes, supporters of the president staged a number of rallies around Cairo, saying Mubarak represented stability amid growing insecurity, and calling those who want his departure "traitors."

"Yes to Mubarak, to protect stability," read one banner in a crowd of 500 gathered near state television headquarters, about 1km from Tahrir Square.

A witness said organisers were paying people $17, to take part in the pro-Mubarak rally, a claim that could not be confirmed.

Other pro-Mubarak demonstrations occurred in the Mohandeseen district, as well as near Ramses Square.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies


Machine guns fired into Cairo's Tahrir Square

By JPOST.COM
S0TAFF MELANIE LIDMAN AND AP
02/02/2011 21:59

600 reported injured, one killed in clashes; Pro-Mubarak rioters hurl Molotov Cocktails, rocks at opposition from surrounding buildings; protesters target Egyptian Museum

Machine gunfire was heard on Wednesday night, shortly after Egyptian state television ordered all demonstrators to evacuate Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square.

Al Jazeera reported that anti-government protesters remained in the square, chanting "Leave! Leave!" at Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, as ambulances were stationed in the area. Frequent gunfire was heard in the vicinity of the Egyptian Museum.

A spokesman from the Egyptian Health Ministry on Wednesday said that 600 people were injured and one man was killed in the recent round of clashes that erupted in central Cairo earlier in the day.

According to the report, the man who was killed was a "conscript" which means he could have belonged to the army or police.

Pro- and anti-government protesters continued to clash in Cairo on Wednesday, with Mubarak's supporters throwing dozens of Molotov cocktails at those protesting against the regime.

Numerous explosives were hurled as the pro-regime mob attempted to push through a no-man's land towards the anti-Mubarak protesters in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square.

Witnesses at Tahrir Square also said they heard several shots fired into the air, and water cannons were fired by security officials to try to calm the protests, according to reports.

An anti-Mubarak demonstrator told the BBC that she is trapped in Tahrir Square, because the area is surrounded by pro-government rioters.

"If we want to get out we have to go through Mubarak supporters," she said. "I'm scared of going out because my face is now recognizable as an opposition protester."

As Supporters and opponents clashed, raining stones, bottles and firebombs on each other in scenes of uncontrolled violence, soldiers stood by without intervening. Government backers galloped in on horses and camels, only to be dragged to the ground and beaten bloody.

At the front line, next to the famed Egyptian Museum at the edge of Tahrir Square, pro-government rioters blanketed the rooftops of nearby buildings, dumping bricks and firebombs onto the crowd below — in the process setting a tree ablaze inside the museum grounds.

On the street below, the two sides crouched behind abandoned trucks and hurled chunks of concrete and bottles at each other, and some government supporters waved machetes.

Bloodied anti-government protesters were taken to makeshift clinics in mosques and alleyways nearby, and some pleaded for protection from soldiers stationed at the square, who refused. Soldiers did nothing to stop the violence beyond firing an occasional shot in the air and no uniformed police were in sight.

"Hosni has opened the door for these thugs to attack us," one man with a loudspeaker shouted to the crowds during the fighting.

The clashes marked a dangerous new phase in Egypt's upheaval — the first significant violence between supporters of the two camps in more than a week of anti-government protests. Clashes began, first in the port city of Alexandria, just hours after Mubarak went on national television Tuesday night and rejected protesters' demands he step down immediately. He defiantly insisted he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term.

Peaceful protests

Meanwhile, Thousands of Egyptians gathered in an upscale Cairo boulevard Wednesday to cheer on President Hosni Mubarak in their first mass counter-demonstration after more than a week of calls for him to resign.

Many praised Mubarak for keeping the country at peace after a series of wars with Israel. Others said they felt personally humiliated by anti-Mubarak demonstrators jeering a man they saw as a symbol of the nation.

The mood was angry and defiant but the protest was mostly peaceful, in contrast to the scene in Cairo's main square, where hundreds of young pro-government supporters attacked crowds of thousands demanding his ouster.

On the boulevard in the middle-class, heavily commercial neighborhood of Mohandiseen, men in designer sunglasses and women with expensive hairdos joined government employees, including a few dozen nurses in white dresses and stockings who jumped and chanted, "We love you Mubarak!" Younger men carried portraits of Mubarak and shouted in support. Children painted their faces with the black, white and red colors of the Egyptian flag.

Pro-Mubarak protesters also gathered in other middle-class Cairo neighborhoods and the Nile Delta town of Luxor.

"We have been a stable country since the days of the Pharoahs. These demonstrators want to turn us into Somalia: poor and at war with itself," cried Samir Hamid, a 58-year-old war veteran who said his age made him remember life before Mubarak took power nearly 30 years ago. He said he recalled struggling to find bread in the pre-Mubarak years, and the wailing of Egyptian women who lost their sons in wars against Israel.

Mubarak says he will not seek re-election

In his 10-minute televised address to the nation Tuesday night, the 82-year-old Mubarak appeared somber but spoke firmly and without an air of defeat. He insisted that even if the protests demanding his ouster had never broken out, he would not have sought a sixth term in September.

He said he would serve out the rest of his term working "to accomplish the necessary steps for the peaceful transfer of power." He said he will carry out amendments to rules on presidential elections, and vowed not to flee the country.

The step came after heavy pressure from his top ally, the United States. Soon after Mubarak's address, US President Barack Obama said at the White House that he had spoken with Mubarak and "he recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable and a change must take place." Obama said he told Mubarak that an orderly transition must be meaningful and peaceful, must begin now and must include opposition parties.

Mubarak would be the second Arab leader pushed from office by a popular uprising in the history of the modern Middle East, following the ouster last month of the president of Tunisia — another North African nation.

Jpost.com staff contributed to this report


Oil turns higher as worries over Egypt persist

By Gene Ramos
NEW YORK | Thu Feb 3, 2011 1:28am IST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Wednesday as worries persisted that upheaval in Egypt could spread across the Middle East and North Africa, source of a third of the world's supply of crude.

Prices had lost some steam earlier after the dollar rebounded as nervous investors sought a safe haven and as data showed U.S. crude stockpiles rose for a third straight week.

"While the oil market wants to move lower on the bearish (inventory) data, it can't break away from worries about Egypt," said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago.

"The latest pictures of Egyptian demonstrations becoming violent have added to those worries," Flynn said.

U.S. March crude settled 9 cents higher at $90.86, bouncing off a session low of $90.10.

ICE Brent crude for March delivery traded up 60 cents at $102.34 a barrel by 2:38 p.m. EST (1938 GMT). In earlier trade it touched $102.36, the highest for a front-month contract since September 2008.

Brent's premium against the U.S. crude benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, remained wide at more than $11 a barrel, gaining from $10.97 at the close on Tuesday.

Part of Brent's strength stemmed from rising U.S. stocks at the key storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for oil futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Stockpiles at the hub rose 667,000 barrels last week to a record 38.33 million barrels, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed.

That was a portion of the total 2.6-million-barrel increase last week in U.S. crude inventories, the third straight week that supplies have risen.

A massive winter storm, meanwhile, brought parts of the Midwest to a standstill and delivered another wintry blow to the Northeast, the biggest market for heating oil.

The U.S. March heating oil contract was up 2.46 cents at $2.7816 a gallon, having hit a session peak of $2.7861, the highest for a front-month heating contract since October 2008.

TENSION IN EGYPT

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said he will surrender power in September, angering protesters who sought an immediate end to his 30-year rule.

In sporadic skirmishes, Mubarak's supporters attacked protesters, further muddling the already explosive situation.

The United States, France, Germany and Turkey have urged Mubarak to carry out a speedy transition, but the president has dug in his heels. A Foreign Ministry statement said those calls aimed to "incite the internal situation" in Egypt.

Analysts expect oil markets to head higher unless the unrest in Egypt subsides.

"We suspect that the (as) yet unresolved political standoff in Egypt will likely keep oil prices fairly well bid, at least for the balance of the week," said Edward Meir, senior commodities analyst at brokers MF Global.

Credit Suisse analysts agreed, saying price risks would remain "skewed to the upside" as long as geopolitical tensions in Egypt remained unresolved: "We expect oil prices to ease once tensions fade due to ample global inventories."

So far, the unrest in Egypt has not affected traffic on the Suez Canal or flows on the Suez-Mediterranean (SUMED) oil pipeline, but shipping sources said there were major disruptions in Egypt's Alexandria and Damietta ports due to staff shortages and an absence of customs officials.

Egypt controls the canal and the pipeline, which together moved over 2 million barrels per day of crude and oil products in 2009, the latest data available.

There are fears that the citizen uprising in North Africa could fuel similar protests in oil producers such as Libya or even Saudi Arabia, stirring fears of a temporary disruption to oil supplies.

(Additional reporting by Robert Gibbons in New York; Christopher Johnson in London; Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore; Editing by Dale Hudson)

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