Cairo: Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, throwing petrol bombs, wielding sticks and charging on horses and camels, fiercely attacked demonstrators in Cairo on Wednesday after the army told protesters to clear the streets.
Anti-Mubarak protesters hurled stones back and said the attackers were police in plain clothes, a charge the Interior Ministry denied; the Egyptian government rejected international calls for the leader to end his 30-year-rule now.
This apparent rebuff along with the appearance of Mubarak supporters on Cairo's streets and their clashes with protesters -- after days of relatively calm demonstrations -- complicated U.S. calculations for an orderly transition of power.
Opposition figurehead Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate, called on the army to intervene to stop the violence in Tahrir Square, the worst in the nine-day uprising against Mubarak since protesters fought street battles last Friday.
But troops stood by and watched as the tumult raged.
There were reports of gunfire in the square and state television said one person was killed and more than 400 people injured in Wednesday's clashes.
Urging protesters to go home, the armed forces told them their demands had been heard, But some were determined to occupy the square until Mubarak quits.
Khalil, a man in his 60s holding a stick, blamed Mubarak supporters and undercover security men for the clashes.
"We will not leave," he told Reuters. "Everybody stay put."
The emergence of Mubarak loyalists, whether ordinary citizens or police, thrust a new dynamic into the momentous events in this most populous Arab nation of 80 million people.
The uprising broke out last week as public frustration with corruption, oppression and economic hardship under Mubarak boiled over. At least 140 people are estimated to have been killed so far.
The crisis has alarmed the United States and other Western governments who saw Mubarak as a bulwark of stability in a volatile region, and has raised the prospect of unrest spreading to other authoritarian Arab countries.
Mubarak went on television on Tuesday to say he would not stand in elections scheduled for September but this was not good enough for the protesters, who demanded he quit the country.
President Barack Obama telephoned the 82-year-old to say Washington wanted him to move faster on political transition.
But Mubarak dug his heels in on Wednesday. A Foreign Ministry statement rejected U.S. and European calls for the transition to start immediately and said they aimed to "incite the internal situation" in Egypt.
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