Pro and anti-Mubarak forces have been clashing in Tahrir square Wednesday as the pro-Mubarak protesters chanted “we will liberate Tahrir Square with blood” under the eyes of the military. At least 50 have been injured and men on about ten horses and camels ran through the square, according to one protester who spoke to Al-Masry Al-Youm over the phone, describing the chaos as it reached new levels. The military has not intervened, according to several news reports, only telling people to go home. The same witness said anti-Mubarak protesters were regaining control of the situation around 3:30 PM and telling people to remain calm. Pro-Mubarak protesters appeared for the first time last night, after a week of protests that began with clashes between riot police and anti-Mubarak protesters, but have been entirely peaceful for the past three days. “The atmosphere was actually festive and joyful for past three days, I can't make sense of why [the pro-Mubarak] protesters came today, and why they are bringing all these weapons,” Waleed Gamal, who has been camping in Tahrir Square for the past five days, said. The president's supporters gathered Wednesday morning downtown, calling for people to Mubarak's announcement last night that he would stay in office until presidential elections this fall. The makeshift clinic at the Abdelrahman Mosque on Bustan Street is being flooded with injuries from the clashes that reportedly began last night. Visibly in a state of shock, a young man carried into the clinic by protesters earlier in the day said he had been hurt by pro-Mubarak demonstrators when he refused to join them for a sum of LE50. An old man was brought to the clinic 15 minutes later, his face covered in blood after being hit by a rock. One of the doctors crouching beside the patient explained that he was hit hard on the head and that she had to make 6 stitches. Dina Omar, a young cardiologist, explained that they are waiting for more cases of violence as the day unfolds. The military has visibly retreated from certain areas, especially around the American University in Cairo campus and the part of Tahrir Square leading into AbdelMoneim Riad Square and Ramses Street. Youth leaders of the anti-Mubarak demonstrations are calling on all of those who were in Tahrir Square yesterday to make their way to Tahrir Square now “to save the revolution from the thugs.” They believe that the army intentionally retreated from certain areas to allow a certain degree of leeway for pro-Mubarak protests. “They must come, that is the only way we can avoid a bloody battle,” one of the organizers of the anti-Mubarak demonstrations said. “They want it to be a battle between civilians and we don't want to be that. We want people to appear so we can have the same safety in numbers that we had before.”
