CAIRO: Several thousand supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, including some riding horses and camels and wielding whips, attacked anti-government protesters Wednesday as Egypt's upheaval took a dangerous new turn.
In chaotic scenes, the two sides pelted each other with stones, and protesters dragged attackers off their horses.
The hours of turmoil were the first significant violence between supporters of the two camps in more than a week of anti-government protests.
It erupted after Mubarak went on national television the night before and rejected demands he step down immediately and said he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term.
Wednesday morning, a military spokesman appeared on state TV and asked the protesters to disperse so life in Egypt could get back to normal.
The announcement could mark a major turn in the attitude of the army, which for the past two days has allowed protests to swell, reaching their largest size yet on Tuesday when a quarter-million peacefully packed into Cairo's central Tahrir Square.
Nearly 10,000 protesters massed again in Tahrir on Wednesday morning, rejecting Mubarak's speech as too little, too late and renewed their demands he leave immediately.
In the early afternoon Wednesday, an Associated Press reporter saw around 3,000 Mubarak supporters break through a human chain of anti-government protesters trying to defend thousands gathered in Tahrir.
Chaos erupted as they tore down banners denouncing the president. Fistfights broke out as they advanced across the massive square in the heart of the capital.
The anti-government protesters grabbed Mubarak posters from the hands of the supporters and ripped them.
The two sides began hurling stones and bottles and sticks at each other, chasing each other as the protesters' human chains moved back to try to shield the larger mass of demonstrators at the plaza's center.
At one point, a small contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on horseback and camels rushed into the anti-Mubarak crowds, swinging whips and sticks to beat people.
Protesters retaliated, dragging some from their mounts, throwing them to the ground and beating their faces bloody. The horses and camels likely were the ones used by touts giving rides for tourists.
Protesters were seen running with their shirts or faces bloodied, some men and women in the crowd were weeping. A scent of tear gas wafted over the area, but it was not clear who had fired it.
The army troops who have been guarding the square had been keeping the two sides apart earlier in the day, but when the clashes erupted they did not intervene.
Most took shelter behind or inside the armored vehicles and tanks stationed at the entrances to Tahrir.
Many protesters —who for days have showered the military with love for its neutral stance —now accused the troops had intentionally allowed the attackers into the square. ''Hosni has opened the door for these thugs to attack us,'' one man with a loudspeaker shouted to the crowds during the fighting.
''These are paid thugs,'' another protester, 52-year-old Emad Nafa, said of the attackers. ''The army is neglectful. They let them in.''
The new tensions began to emerge immediately following Mubarak's speech Tuesday night. Later in the night, clashes erupted between pro- and anti-government demonstrators in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, while in Cairo groups of Mubarak supporters took to the streets, some carrying knives and sticks.
Gatherings of Mubarak supporters have also taken a harsher tone against journalists and foreigners. Two Associated Press correspondents and several other journalists were roughed up during various such gatherings.
State TV reported Tuesday night that foreigners were caught distributing anti-Mubarak leaflets, apparently trying to depict the movement as foreign-fueled.
The violence could represent a dangerous new chapter in the nearly 10 days of upheaval that has shaken Egypt, which has already taken a series of dramatic and unpredictable twists.
After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by unrest in Tunisia took to the streets on Jan. 25 and mounted a once-unimaginable series of demonstrations across this nation of 80 million. Initially, police cracked down hard with brutal and deadly clashes on the demonstrators.
Then police withdrew completely from the streets for the day, opening a wave of looting, armed robberies and arson —largely separate from the protests themselves —that stunned Egyptians.
But since Sunday, the army moved in to take control and the situation became more peaceful. The military announced it would not stop protests.
As a result, the demonstrations swelled dramatically, protesters gained momentum and enthusiasm and many believed Mubarak's immediate fall was at hand.
The United States put intense pressure on Mubarak to bring his rule to an end while ensuring a stable handover.
CAIRO: The Egyptian military called Wednesday for an end to more than a week of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak, throwing its support behind his embattled regime hours after he defiantly rejected demands to step down immediately and said he would serve out his term in office.
The declaration was a clear shift in the stand of the army, which gave a tacit endorsement to the movement on Monday by saying it would not use force against protesters, and that they had legitimate demands.
The emboldened protesters brought more than 250,000 people into Cairo's main square Tuesday to demand Mubarak leave within days. The president responded before midnight with a statement pledging to serve seven more months in office and "die on Egyptian soil".
Representatives of his National Democratic Party immediately began making public statements trying to project the image of the regime as Egypt's sole path back to stability and security after the disruption of normal life caused by eight days of protests, and a wave of looting and arson that gripped the country over the weekend after the government pulled police from the street.
The army's message to the demonstrators had a more conciliatory tone, appealing to young protesters to stand down "out of love for Egypt".
"You have started coming out to express your demands and you are the ones capable of returning normal life to Egypt," military spokesman Ismail Etman said in an address on state television. "Your message has arrived, your demands have become known."
Immediately after his statement, state television ran a scrolling message reading: "The armed forces call on the protesters to go home for the sake of bringing back stability."
Internet service also began returning to Egypt after days of an unprecedented cut-off by the government, and state TV said authorities were easing a night-time curfew, which now runs from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. instead of 3 p.m. to 8 a.m.
Several thousand pro-Mubarak demonstrators were rallying in support of him in Cairo.
Some expressed fears of continuing shortages of food and other necessities if protesters in Tahrir Square didn't end demonstrations.
"I want the people in Tahrir Square to understand that Mubarak gave his word that he will give the country to them through elections, peacefully, now they have no reason for demonstrations," said Ali Mahmoud, 52, who identified himself as middle-class worker from Menoufia, a Nile Delta province north of Cairo.
The presence of significant numbers of pro- and anti-Mubarak forces on the streets raised the danger of clashes. Already early Wednesday after Mubarak spoke, the Mediterranean city of Alexandria saw fighting erupt between several hundred protesters and government supporters early Wednesday, Al-Jazeera television footage showed.
Ahmed Abdel Hamid, representing The Revolutionary Committee, one of several youth groups that organised the protests, said that the regime was going all out to pressure people to stop protesting.
"Starting with the emotional speech of Mubarak, to the closure of banks, the shortage of food and commodities and deployment of thugs to intimidate people, these are all means to put pressure on the people"
The movement against Mubarak is fuelled by deep frustration with an autocratic regime blamed for ignoring the needs of the poor and allowing corruption and official abuse to run rampant.
After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by unrest in Tunisia took to the streets on January 25 and mounted a once-unimaginable series of protests across this nation of 80 million.
In his 10-minute address, Mubarak appeared sombre 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.
Mubarak, a former air force commander, vowed not to flee the country.
"This is my dear homeland," he said. "I have lived in it, I fought for it and defended its soil, sovereignty and interests. On its soil I will die. History will judge me and all of us."
The step came after heavy pressure from his top ally, the United States. Soon after Mubarak's address, President Barack Obama said at the White House that he had spoken with Mubarak and "he recognises 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.
Earlier, a visiting Obama envoy — former ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, who is a friend of the Egyptian president — met with Mubarak and made clear to him that it is the US "view that his tenure as president is coming to a close," according to an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the ongoing diplomacy.
The United States has been struggling to find a way to ease Mubarak out of office while maintaining stability in Egypt, a key ally in the Mideast that has a 30-year-old peace treaty with Israel and has been a bulwark against religious extremism.
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.
On Wednesday morning in the capital, long lines formed at gas stations and bakeries. Fresh vegetables have all but vanished from Cairo, with farm producers from surrounding areas unable to ferry their goods to the city of 18 million people.
Some cars in Cairo had small papers stuck on their windscreen declaring “Yes to Mubarak”.
On the edge of Tahrir Square, protesters from the two camps were engaged in heated arguments over whether continued protests were beneficial after Mubarak promised reforms and declared his intention not to run again.
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