Pro-Mubarak Protesters Vow to ‘Liberate Tahrir Square With Blood’

Govt Rejects Reports of Violent Protesters With Police IDs

After virtually a week of the streets belonging exclusively to the pro-democracy protesters demanding the ouster of Egyptian President-for-life Hosni Mubarak, forces loyal to him took to the streets today, with horses, and whips.

Indeed what had been an entirely peaceful protest after the police had been successfully chased of the streets turned extremely ugly today, with the Mubarak loyalists attacking protesters and throwing molotov cocktails into the crowd.

Most see the late-coming pro-Mubarak rallies as an official act of a desperate regime, and as his “supporters” vowed to “liberate Tahrir Square with blood” media outlets reported some of the protesters admitted they worked for government industries and were “ordered” by their bosses to attend the pro-Mubarak side.

Some reports even suggest that the most violent of Mubarak’s supporters are some of the self-same police that were routed early on, only in plain clothes. Regime officials denied these reports, and when confronted by reports the attackers carried police ID speculated the ID cards were “stolen” somehow.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.