Feb. 2: Washington and the UN’s calls for a rapid transition to a new order in Egypt were eclipsed on Wednesday as a choreographed surge of thousands of people chanting support for the Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak fought running battles with a larger number of anti-government protesters in and around Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
The clashes marked a dangerous new phase in Egypt’s nine-day-old upheaval: the first significant violence between supporters of the two camps.
Two Molotov cocktails landed inside the grounds of Cairo’s world-famous Egyptian Museum and a hail of petrol bombs rained down as the two sides traded volleys of rocks and engaged in hand-to-hand fighting.
The mayhem and chaos — with riders on horses and camels thundering through the central square — offered a complete contrast to the scenes only 24 hours earlier when hundreds of thousands turned it into a place of jubilant celebration, believing they were close to overthrowing a leader who has survived longer than any other in modern Egypt.
At least six riders were dragged from their beasts, beaten with sticks and taken away with blood streaming down their faces.
The violence came as reverberations from the protest spread to one more corner of the Arab world in Yemen, where President Ali Abdullah Saleh promised to leave in 2013.