Late Saturday, it was still unclear whether the military was defying orders to crack down or simply had not been issued them yet. But at least some troops seemed to be sympathizing with the protesters. In the most striking instance, four armored military vehicles moved at the front of a crowd of thousands of protesters in a pitched battle against Egyptian security police officers defending the Interior Ministry.
Protesters there crouched behind armored trucks as they advanced on the police line surrounding the building, then darted forward to hurl rocks or Molotov cocktails and to set abandoned cars on fire.
Everywhere in Cairo, soldiers and protesters hugged or snapped pictures together on top of tanks. With the evident consent of the soldiers, protesters had scrawled graffiti denouncing Mr. Mubarak on many of the tanks in downtown Cairo. “This is the revolution of all the people,” read a common slogan. “No, No, Mubarak” was another. In Alexandria, demonstrators took tea to troops.
The loyalty of the military — the country’s most popular and respected institution — will be crucial to determining whether Mr. Mubarak can remain as the president of his country, a leader in the Arab world and perhaps America and Israel’s closest ally in the region. A change in leadership here would threaten to upend the established order throughout the Middle East.
Actually the army intervenes to protect protesters from the police ...
Things are getting rough in Egypt.
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