Mubarak Moves to Regain Streets as Turmoil Hits Yemen

Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak sought to reclaim Cairo’s streets as his supporters clashed with protesters demanding the president’s ouster and leading rival Mohamed ElBaradei called on the army to step in.

Demonstrators backing Mubarak, who said yesterday he won’t step down until September’s election, attacked opposition supporters in Tahrir Square and the two groups hurled rocks at each other. Mubarak supporters tried to storm the offices of independent newspaper Al-Shorouk, its editor said, and Al Jazeera television reported live bullets fired in central Cairo. The Egyptian army, which had earlier told protesters to go home, should act to halt fighting instigated by a “criminal regime” that “has to go immediately,” ElBaradei told BBC radio.

“We’re concerned that this escalation could lead to bloodshed,” said Daniel Williams, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch in Cairo. “We worry that this could be government- sponsored and be a prelude to a severe crackdown.”

Political turmoil is spreading through the Middle East. Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh today said he’ll stand down when his term ends in 2013. Jordan’s King Abdullah yesterday sacked his prime minister, Tunisians ousted longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali last month, and in Algeria protesters have been killed in clashes with security forces. As many as 300 people died in a week of protests in Egypt which roiled international stock, bond and oil markets and prompted President Barack Obama to tell Mubarak yesterday that the transition to democracy must “begin now.”