Western analysts, Israel: Egyptian regime will weather the storm
Israeli and western analysts agree Egyptian regime will remain as popular uprising gains strength while government clamps down on protesters; little to no concern of Muslim Brotherhood takeover: government shuts down Internet access, cellular service, and other personal communications in an effort to contain the rebellion as turmoil spreads across Egypt; journalists under assault; former IAEA chief El-Barradai under house arrest; ruling party headquarters set ablaze
As the uprising in Egypt intensifies, the demonstrations have become a major test for the regime. The government has ordered the army deployed to support police efforts to contain the spreading violence, with somewhat mixed results.
Reports have surfaced of explosions and gunfire in Cairo, as crowds numbering in the thousands defied the curfew. The headquarters of president Hosni Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party was set ablaze, as several other fires from burning tires and police cars ignited across Egypt.
As darkness fell, tanks took up positions across Egypt’s major population centers in an attempt to enforce a six p.m. to seven a.m. curfew with little effect.
“The armed forces started to deploy forces in the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez as a first stage in implementing the decree…” the official news agency reported.
So far, and with few exceptions, the Egyptian security forces, under orders from the president, have abstained from unleashing a wave of violence against the demonstrators — the kind of ruthless violence Egyptian regimes used in the past against opposition forces, and greatly restrained when compared to the responses of other regimes in the region. Though arrests have numbered above a thousand, there are only six reported deaths thus far, remarkable in a region where casualties of government crackdowns are often counted in the thousands.
Prominent among the arrested was Mohammed El-Baradei, pro-democracy advocate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who was placed under house arrest.
The protesters themselves appear to have exercised a curious restraint. Some of the most serious violence Friday was in Suez, where protesters seized weapons stored in a police station and asked the policemen inside to leave the building before they burned it down. They also set ablaze about 20 police trucks parked nearby. Demonstrators exchanged fire with policemen trying to stop them from storming another police station and one protester was killed in the gun battle.
The main methods employed to contain the violence were tear gas, water hoses, and arrests, with live shooting being used sporadically. Nevertheless, the protesters don’t agree with the assessment of apparent restraint.
“I can’t believe our own police, our own government would keep beating up on us like this,” said Cairo protester Ahmad Salah, 26. “I’ve been here for hours and gassed and keep going forward, and they keep gassing us, and I will keep going forward. This is a cowardly government and it has to fall. We’re going
