(Reuters) - A bitter and, by turns, bloody confrontation gripped central Cairo on Thursday as armed government loyalists fought pro-democracy protesters demanding the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.
At least six people were dead and 800 wounded after gunmen and stick-wielding Mubarak supporters attacked demonstrators camped out for a tenth day on Tahrir Square to demand the 82-year-old leader immediately end his 30-year rule.
A literal stone's throw from the
Egyptian Museum, home to 7,000 years of civilization in the most populous Arab state, angry men skirmished back and forth with rocks, clubs and makeshift shields, as the U.S.-built tanks of Mubarak's Western-funded army made sporadic efforts to separate them.
Away from the lenses of global media focused on Tahrir Square, a political battle was being fought with implications for competing Western and Islamist influence over the Middle East and its oil. European leaders joined the United States in urging their long-time Arab ally to start handing over power.
His government, newly appointed in a reshuffle that failed to appease protesters, stood by the president's insistence on Tuesday that he will go, but only when his fifth term ends in September. Mubarak continues to portray himself as a bulwark against anarchy, or a seizure of power by Islamist radicals.
The opposition won increasingly vocal support from Mubarak's long-time Western backers for a swifter handover of power.
"This process of transition must start now," the leaders of Britain, France,
Germany, Italy and Spain said in a statement.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon added his voice.
They all echoed the message President Barack Obama said he gave Mubarak in a phone call on Tuesday. U.S. officials also condemned what they called a "concerted campaign to intimidate" journalists, after many were attacked by government loyalists.
Opposition leaders including the liberal figurehead Mohamed ElBaradei and the mass Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood said again that Mubarak must go before they would negotiate.
TRIAL OF STRENGTH
As he tended to some of those on the square, doctor Mohamed al-Samadi voiced anger: "They let armed thugs come and attack us. We refuse to go. We can't let Mubarak stay eight months."
Protesters, who numbered some 10,000 on Tahrir Square on Thursday afternoon, have called major demonstrations for Friday. Many formed human chains across roads to seal off the square.
This is a trial of strength in which the army has a crucial role as its commanders seek to preserve their institution's influence and wealth in the face of massive popular rejection of the old order, widely regarded as brutal, corrupt and wasteful.
The government, which rejected assumptions by foreign powers that it had orchestrated the attacks on demonstrators, seemed to be counting on winning over the sympathy of Egyptians feeling the pinch of unprecedented economic dislocation.
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