Fighter Jets Over Cairo; Egyptian Military Getting Aggressive

[Kahn]

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Relative calm settled on Cairo in the hours before sunrise on Sunday, after tens of thousands of demonstrators defied a curfew on Saturday to demand change and new fears of anarchy spread as President Hosni Mubarak clung to power.

As Mubarak tried to redeem his 30-year rule, the world's attention fell on central Cairo, where the Army was deployed to replace police forces that clashed brutally with demonstrators. But with many Cairo neighborhoods left without any security, Egyptians began to feel the sting of politics cutting into personal safety.

Shops and businesses were looted and abandoned police stations stripped clean of their arsenals.

ElBaradei: The man to lead a free Egypt?

In one area, residents set up barricades and handed out sticks and kitchen knives as defense measures. Another group of men armed themselves and planned to sit outside all night to guard their houses.

"There have been no police officers on the streets since this morning," Cairo resident Sherief Abdelbaki said. "All the men are trying to protect the ladies, their wives and children."

"We have all become vigilantes ... it's like the Wild West," he said. "Where is the security?"

This thread will constantly be updated, since CNN constantly updates their article (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/29/egypt.protests/index.html?hpt=T1)

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http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/on-deadline/2011/01/25/%20Egypt%20protestx-large.jpg?loc=interstitialskip

Protesters battling police in the streets of Cairo

[TheMatrix]

it'll only be a matter of time before mubarak will lose; what then?

[Kahn]

it'll only be a matter of time before mubarak will lose; what then?

The people attempt to establish a new government, or just replace him altogether.

[Azunite]

Finally someone opened a thread about this.
By the way there are more than 90 people dead plus 2.000 wounded.

[deadpie]

Finally someone opened a thread about this.
By the way there are more than 90 people dead plus 2.000 wounded.

>Implying I didn't already have two threads on this.

[Kahn]

**UPDATE**

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Fighter jets flew low over the crowd of tens of thousands of protesters defying a state-imposed curfew Sunday in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
The jets flew so low, according to CNN staffers on the ground, that their cockpits could be seen.

In a statement carried by state television, Gen. Mohamad Tantawi, the defense minister in the sacked Egyptian government, urged the public to obey the 4 p.m. - 8 a.m. curfew (9 a.m.-1 a.m. ET). Tantawi was escorted to the network's headquarters by red-helmeted troops in a convoy of sport-utility vehicles.

The demonstrations throughout the day were generally peaceful, and at times felt like a music festival, with people cheering, chatting, and posing for pictures with members of the military in their tanks. The army had been deployed to replace police forces that had crashed brutally with demonstrators.

Some residents picked up the slack for police in areas surrounding the protests -- offering to clean up trash, for example. Medical personnel worked their way through the crowd, seeing if anyone needed help.

With the world's attention focused on their efforts, the protesters issued two central demands: that the regime that has run Egypt for years face a trial, and that the constitution be changed.

Many expressed optimism that they will succeed. "This is the start of the rest of my life," one jubilant young man who appeared to be in his 20s told CNN. "As cheesy as it sounds, that's exactly how I feel right now."
But many among the protesters insisted on standing their ground on the sixth day of demonstrations aimed at bringing an end to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government.

A group of Egyptian troops fired warning shots at a car that attempted to run a barricade around Tahrir Square, but the vehicle made it through the barricade and escaped, according to CNN photographer Joe Duran.

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