Latest from the BBC (18:09 ET)
The struggle for control of the future of Egypt continued in Cairo.
Egyptian anti-government protesters remain entrenched in Cairo’s main square, after at least three people were killed in clashes with supporters of President Hosni Mubarak.
Hundreds of people were also wounded as rival groups fought pitched battles in and around Tahrir Square, in the worst violence in nine days of protests.
The army has urged people to go home.
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The unrest has left about 300 people dead across the country over more than a week, according to UN estimates.
Cairo’s Tahrir Square has been the main focus of the protests.
The BBC’s Yolande Knell in Cairo says the situation there remained tense on Wednesday night, with fires burning outside the Egyptian Museum.
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UPDATE III:
Here’s an interesting take from BBC’s “War and Peace” Mark Urban’s blog, “Mubarak gets a crackdown which he can deny”
Have we witnessed an effective authoritarian response to people power today in Cairo’s Tahrir Square?
Sending club wielding gangs of “supporters” into action has denied the pro-democracy protestors the kind of iconic image of oppression that come out of China when a man stood in front of a column of tanks in 1989.
Read more here.
UPDATE II
Click here for video
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UPDATE:
Nicholas Kristof has just filed an eyewitness report from Tahrir
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To those who are still supporting President Hosni Mubarak, the sights and sounds coming from Tahrir Square during recent hours and a report from the BBC should give them pause. Here are parts:
Clashes have erupted in the Egyptian capital between supporters of President Hosni Mubarak and demonstrators calling on him to step down immediately.
Pro-Mubarak groups have been pushing their way to the edges of Tahrir Square all afternoon.
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From time to time in the side streets, big pro-Mubarak groups gather around people who have left the square, shouting at them and punching them.There have been reports of people being knifed, but the casualties you mostly see are from the bricks and stones which have been raining down indiscriminately.
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Up to 2,000 anti-Mubarak demonstrators spent Tuesday night in Tahrir Square, the main focus of the protests, saying the president’s pledge was insufficient and chanting: “We will not leave!”But on Wednesday, thousands of supporters of President Mubarak arrived in buses and surged into the square, dismantling barricades.
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Opposition supporters say many in the pro-government camp were mobilised and paid by the authorities to demonstrate.Television footage showed opposing groups facing off near the Egyptian Museum, chanting slogans. They later hurled stones at each other and fought with sticks and bottles. Some government supporters rode horses and camels and wielded whips.
Repeated bursts of gunfire have been heard. Some reports say troops fired warning shots to disperse the crowds.
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But Ibrahim Zadran, co-ordinator of the opposition National Association for Change, told the BBC that some pro-government activists had used firearms and shot 15 protesters.::
The anti-Mubarak protesters have been accusing the army of moving aside to let in their pro-government rivals. The crowds of protesters began to thin after the fighting broke out.As darkness fell, people were seen throwing rocks and petrol bombs from rooftops onto the protesters below.
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“If it turns out that the regime in any way has sponsored or tolerated this violence, that is completely unacceptable,” he said after meeting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in London.Mr. Ban said: “Any attack against the peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable and I strongly condemn it.”
I agree, if in fact Mubarak had any hand in organizing, encouraging, supporting or turned a blind eye to these mobs of horse- and camel-mounted, whip-wielding hoodlums and thugs to attack the peaceful demonstrators, to crack down on the democracy movement, every remaining vestige of support for his regime should evaporate. But one never knows…
Read more here
