Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters thronged Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday, ahead of the "million man march" protest due to take place later in the day to mark seven days of anti-government demonstrations in the country.
A similar mass protest is scheduled to take place in the city of Alexandria, and the military has officially announced that Egyptian soldiers will not hurt any of the protesters, and will actually assure that the people are protected.
| Protesters shout anti-Mubarak slogans during an anti-government protest in Tahrir square in Cairo February 1, 2011. |
Photo by: Reuters |
The Egyptian government has been trying to block citizens from arriving to the site of the protests by stopping train services and continuing to restrict internet access and mobile phone networks.
The goal of the protest group "April 6," which is leading the demonstrations, is to gather as many people as possible so they can pressure the army to cross over and protest against Mubarak.
The demonstrators plan to march to Mubarak's residence while holding the caskets of citizens who were killed over the weekend during clashes with police. The protesters are also expected to take over several of Cairo's main arteries and maybe even government offices and important state sites.
Among the people who streamed into Tahrir Square were many who defied a government transportation shutdown to make their way from rural provinces in the Nile Delta. The crowd was jammed in shoulder to shoulder - schoolteachers, farmers, unemployed university graduates, women in conservative headscarves and women in high heels, men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes.
They sang nationalist songs and chanted "Mubarak, Leave! Leave! Leave!" as military helicopters buzzed overhead.
Soldiers at checkpoints set up the entrances of the square did nothing to stop the crowds from entering.Protesters said they wanted Mubarak out of power by Friday.
"This is the end for him. It's time," said Musab Galal, a 23-year-old unemployed university graduate who came by minibus with his friends from the Nile Delta city of Menoufiya.
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