Egypt protesters defy crackdown

Activists trying to oust Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, are continuing to clash with police in the capital, Cairo, despite a government crackdown to end the unprecedented protests.

Al Jazeera's Dan Nolan, reporting from Cairo, said there were "running clashes throughout Cairo" overnight and that while the situation was a bit calmer in the early hours of Thursday, more protests were anticipated during the day as the demonstrators are "just showing no signs of stopping so far".

The protests are likely to gather momentum with the arrival of Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning former head of the UN nuclear watchdog and a potential presidential rival to Mubarak.

"I am going back to Cairo and back onto the streets, because, really, there is no choice. You go out there with this massive number of people and you hope things will not turn ugly, but so far, the regime does not seem to have gotten that message," ElBaradei, who lives in Vienna, said in remarks on US website The Daily Beast.

Ongoing clashes

In protests that seem to have been inspired by the recent turmoil in Tunisia, Egyptians have defied a government ban only political rallies and taken to the streets in thousands across several cities to vent their anger against Mubarak's 30-year rule.

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Since the streets protests erupted on Tuesday, the police have confronted protesters with tear gas, water cannons and batons and arrested more than 860 people.

At least six people have also been killed as heavily armed police faced off with angry protesters.

But our correspondent said that crackdown has failed to end the protests. The protesters seem determined and continue to gather at various locations, before being dispersed by the police.

Protesters have constantly regrouped, using Facebook and Twitter to galvanise and co-ordinate their demonstrations.

Calls for another big protest on Friday gathered 24,000 Facebook supporters within hours of being posted.

Web activists seem to have acted largely independently of more organised opposition movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, widely seen as having Egypt's biggest grassroots network with its social and charity projects.

There have been reports of blocked internet access and mobile service interruptions in an apparent government move to thwart protesters from communicating among themselves.

Twitter on Wednesday said its service had been blocked in Egypt. But Al Jazeera's Nolan reported that the site was up and running on Thursday.

Meanwhile Jillian York, who oversees the Herdict web monitoring service at Harvard University, said that Egyptian Facebook users confirmed to her that the website was blocked.

Facebook, however, said it had not recorded "major changes" in traffic from Egypt.

US response

Washington, which views Mubarak as a vital ally and bulwark of Middle Eastern peace, has called for calm and urged Egypt to make reforms to meet the protesters' demands.

"We believe strongly that the Egyptian government has an important opportunity at this moment in time to implement political, economic and social reforms to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people," Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, said.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane said that the US has to strike a delicate balance.

"Egypt is by far one of the biggest beneficiaries of US foreign aid when it comes to military financing," our Washington DC correspondent said, adding that Egypt received $1.3bn a year from the US, second only to Israel in that respect.

"It would seem then, that the US has some leverage to push the Egyptian government to not crackdown on the protesters," Culhane said. Whether the US choses to exercise that leverage remains to be seen.

Like Tunisians, Egyptians complain about surging prices, lack of jobs, and authoritarian rulers who have relied on heavy-handed security to keep dissenting voices quiet.

Egypt's population of some 80 million is growing by 2 per cent a year. Two thirds of the population is under 30, and that age group accounts for 90 per cent of the jobless. About 40 per cent live on less than $2 a day, and a third are illiterate.

A presidential election is due in September. Egyptians assume that the 82-year-old Mubarak plans either to remain in control or hand power to his son Gamal,47. Father and son both deny that Gamal is being groomed for the job.