Rioters Jolt Egyptian Regime

By MATT BRADLEY

CAIRO—Tens of thousands of protesters clashed with police in cities across Egypt on Tuesday to demand the ouster of the president, as shock waves from Tunisia's successful revolt against its leader two weeks ago continued to rumble through the Middle East.

WSJ's Matt Bradley reports from Cairo on the deadly violence in Egypt. Three people died in clashes with police yesterday, and more protests against President Hosni Mubarak are expected today.

The protests appeared to be the biggest in decades in Egypt, a country where opposition has long been kept in check and demonstrations rarely draw more than a few hundred people. According to some initial accounts, as many as 50,000 demonstrators in all turned out in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other Egyptian cities. At least two protesters and one security official were killed.

U.S. officials said they were carefully watching the outpouring of anger in Egypt, one of Washington's key allies in the Middle East and one of the top recipients of U.S. military aid.

The protests marked the greatest upsurge of anger so far inspired by the Tunisian protests, which culminated this month in the fall of the North African country's longtime president. In some 10 days since then, demonstrations have broken out in Algeria, Jordan and Yemen.

For many Egyptians, the fall of Tunisia's dictator broke a psychological barrier by exposing the weakness of a seemingly entrenched Arab regime. The demonstrators' energy and numbers were evidence that Egyptians, long frustrated by mounting economic woes and a seemingly unmovable leadership, were capable of uniting to challenge the rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

Photos: Protests in Cairo

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Zuma Press

"This is an historic day in Egypt's history, because we have started to say 'no'," said Mohammed Saleh, who joined protesters Tuesday night in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the Egyptian capital's main interchange. "I'll tell my children someday that I was standing here in Tahrir Square."

Top Egyptian officials weren't available to comment, but a government statement confirmed protests had taken place in several regions. "Egyptians have the right to express themselves," a spokesman for Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement. Egypt's interior ministry said that after some 10,000 protesters gathered Tuesday in Tahrir Square, police forces "took necessary measures to maintain order and protect public safety."

Any major shift in the foreign policy of Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, would have lasting impact for American interests, in matters from the Arab-Israel peace process to the fight against al Qaeda, say current and former U.S. officials. A major concern—though not an immediate one—is that an Islamist government could someday take power in Cairo, drastically reordering Egypt's world view in a manner similar to what happened in Iran, when the 1979 Islamic revolution overthrew the American-backed shah.

Tuesday's protests fell on Police Day, an annual holiday meant to commemorate a police-led uprising against British colonialists in 1952. Many Egyptians have remained angry over allegations that police officers beat a young man to death last summer in Alexandria.

Throughout the afternoon in Cairo, demonstrators challenged police to employ the sort of heavy-handed tactics that in the end helped undo Tunisia's autocratic regime. The Tunisian army's refusal to follow presidential orders to fire live rounds into a crowd of demonstrators is credited with turning the tide.

Protesters marched Tuesday afternoon to Tahrir Square, railing against Mr. Mubarak's three-decade rule and against his son, Gamal, considered a possible successor. They also shouted for an end to Egypt's emergency law, which grants extensive powers to security services, and called for an increase in Egypt's minimum wage.

Such demands bore echoes of the Tunisian demonstrations that culminated in president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's unexpected Jan. 14 flight to Saudi Arabia. "Hey Hosni! Hey Gamal! Saudi Arabia is waiting for you!" demonstrators chanted as they marched.

Demonstrators were met in Tahrir Square by an almost equal number of state security officials, who used clubs, water cannons and tear gas to subdue the crowd. Protests devolved by late afternoon into riots, with stone-throwing youth forcing police to retreat several blocks. Baton-wielding officers charged back, beating demonstrators and also throwing stones.

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Egyptian demonstrators clash with Egyptian police in central Cairo during a protest to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak and calling for reforms.

Several protesters vowed late Tuesday to remain in the square until morning. Security forces dispersed protesters early Wednesday, the state news agency reported.

For all the inspiration protesters drew from Tunisia, the demonstrations underscored important differences between the two countries.

Unlike in Tunisia, where the military paved the way for Mr. Ben Ali's ouster by holding fire on demonstrators, Egypt's military has an economic interest in keeping the current regime in power. Mr. Mubarak is a former Air Force general, and the government has given top officers control over some of Egypt's largest state-owned businesses.

Tunisia's outpouring was relatively spontaneous. The rally in Egypt was planned and organized by a coalition of regime opponents and a pro-labor youth movement. The opposition groups spent the previous week before Tuesday's so-called "Day of Wrath" rallying support on Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter in Egypt wasn't working for several hours Tuesday. Twitter's public relations team confirmed in an online message Tuesday that the service was blocked in Egypt.

Some of Egypt's largest opposition forces tried to keep a low profile. The Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed Islamist group that is Egypt's most powerful political opposition, allowed members to participate but stopped short of calling its people onto the streets.

Egypt's interior ministry said some of the most violent rioting involved "a large number of those affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood." That couldn't be independently confirmed.

Thousands across Egypt take to the streets to protest against their government, inspired by the Tunisian revolution. Video courtesy of Reuters.

Nobel Prize-winner Mohammed elBaradei, a pro-democracy advocate some Egyptians would like to see succeed Mr. Mubarak in elections set for later this year, said he supported the protests but didn't participate.

Egypt poses a complex challenge for U.S. foreign policy. President Mubarak has been a staunch supporter of American attempts to forge Arab-Israeli peace, and Cairo is a close partner in counterterrorism operations as well as one of the top recipients of U.S. aid.

The Obama administration has been navigating a delicate diplomatic line with Mr. Mubarak's government in recent months. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was widely criticized following a Nov. 10 meeting in Washington with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmet Aboul Gheit in which she didn't publicly raise the issue of Cairo staging transparent legislative elections that month.

Anti-government protesters in Egypt clashed with police, resulting in three deaths. Matt Bradley reports. Plus, Joe Barrett on Rahm Emanuel winning a place on the Chicago mayoral ballots. We'll also preview tonight's State of the Union Address.

Egyptian opposition officials viewed this as a signal to Mr. Mubarak that the U.S. wouldn't place a significant focus on the conduct of the elections. That month, Cairo rebuffed U.S. calls for international monitors to be allowed to witness the vote.

Mrs. Clinton on Tuesday downplayed the idea that Mr. Mubarak's government was being destabilized, even as she called for his security forces to show restraint. "Our assessment is that the Egyptian Government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people," she told reporters at the State Department.

Still, Washington and its allies appear increasingly unsure of where things are headed in Egypt and the broader Middle East. "We assume that things will settle down in a few days," said a Middle Eastern diplomat from a country closely aligned with Washington. "But you never know where these things begin and where they end."