Violence in Egypt; turns out freedom isn't a cakewalk

From The Lede:

Thousands of demonstrators for and against President Hosni Mubarak, some on horses and camels, fought running battles in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday, despite a call from Egypt's powerful military for the president's opponents to "restore normal life."

The pro-government supporters had arrived in their thousands, but were outnumbered by Mr. Mubarak's opponents.

Their confrontations, which were descending into rock-throwing clashes, injected a new and perilous element into the eight-day standoff between anti-government protesters and Mr. Mubarak, hours after he offered to step down in September and President Obama urged a faster transition....

On Wednesday, Mr. Mubarak's supporters arrived in larger numbers than had been seen before. Hours before, antigovernment protesters had been chanting: "We are not going to go; we are not going to go."

In counterpoint, demonstrators supporting Mr. Mubarak chorused on Wednesday: "He's not going to go; he's not going to go."

Volleys of rocks flew between the two groups and many protesters were led away with bleeding head wounds. The clashes erupted close to the Egyptian Museum housing a huge trove of priceless antiquities.

Plumes of smoke, apparently from tear gas, rose as the rival crowds surged back and forth.

"Where's the Egyptian army?" anti-government demonstrators chanted.

Mackey also quotes Sandmonkey's tweets:

Watching the egyptian media now is driving me insane. Propaganda & Stupidity overdose!

The TV just annunced that there is a Pro Mubarak million-man-march. This will be hilarious. They managed to get 1000 today.

Clashes in Tahrir square. The egyptian TV claims that hundreds of thousands of protesters are Pro Mubarak.

Clashes, Pro Mubarak people attacking protesters. Tear Gas thrown. Very violent. No Army intervention so far.

Twitter won't work from my phone. Everything else works.

egyptian army is not seperating the people, they r holding the egyptian flag&urging egyptians- who r beating each other- to unite.

Twitter down on all mobiles. web still works.

Camels and Horses used by Pro Mubarak protesters to attack Anti-Mubarak protesters. This is becoming literally a circus.

You can't even make up a movie that would equal this level of insanity.

Ok, it is official, my @Mobinil line has twitter and facebook blocked on it. They work fine on my etisalat line....

This means the regime knows who I am and where I live. My life is now officially in danger.

people are showing on TV holding police ID's from the protesters they just clashed with.

Mubarak has proven to be smarter than all of us, he will not leave. Just watch.

The aim of this is to evacuate the Tahrir square & justify never having protests there Friday, where 1 is scheduled, or ever again.

Authoritarian regimes, watch Mubarak and learn from the master.... Ben Ali must be so jealous he didn't think of this psychotic brilliant plan.

There are reports that CNN's Anderson Cooper was punched in the head ten times by pro-Mubarak supporters/secret police.

It looks like Egypt is in for a lot more chaos and violence before this calms down - one way or another.

And the Islamists are happily waiting to take advantage of that.