Pro, anti-Mubarak protesters clash in Cairo

Mubarak supporters on camel and horseback charge anti-government protesters.

CAIRO: Tensions between supporters of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and opposition protesters boiled over on Wednesday, as violent clashes broke out on Cairo's Tahrir Square, injuring dozens of people.

The confrontations erupted after thousands of Mubarak supporters marched into the square, which has been the focal point for nine days of anti-government protests.

Protesters on both sides began throwing stones at each other, with some of the fiercest clashes breaking out in front of the world famous Egyptian Museum. Inside the gates of the museum, soldiers formed a human chain to prevent people from entering the grounds.

At least 10 people were injured in the initial confrontation and many suffered bloody head wounds.

Mubarak supporters on camel and horseback then charged anti-government protesters, who surrounded them, dragging at least six from their animals and beating them.

Soldiers surrounding the square took cover from flying stones, and the windows of at least one army truck were broken. Some troops stood on tanks and appealed for calm but did not otherwise intervene.

Protesters shouted "One, two, where is the Egyptian army?" and anti-Mubarak demonstrators clambered onto tanks to lob stones at regime supporters.

They also commandeered five army trucks, pushing them into place to try to form a barricade between themselves and the pro-regime protesters.

Anti-Mubarak protesters accused the leader's National Democratic Party (NDP) of orchestrating the clashes and showed an AFP reporter four party membership cards they said were taken from demonstrators who began attacking people.

The clashes came after pro-regime demonstrators staged protests at points across Cairo, pledging their allegiance to the beleaguered Mubarak, who has said he will not stand for re-election in September.

But the long-time ruler has not indicated any plans to leave office, a key demand of the anti-government protesters who have shaken Egypt with nine days of unprecedented demonstrations.

In the upmarket Mohandeseen district, an estimated 3,000 people rallied in support of Mubarak, chanting "We don't want you to go," and accusing opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei of being a traitor.

Museums on high alert for ancient Egyptian loot

International museums are on high alert for looted Egyptian artefacts and some archaeologists have even offered to fly to the country to help safeguard its ancient treasures, museums said on Wednesday.

Egypt has been rocked by an unprecedented nine days of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule, and fears are high for the country's priceless heritage after looters broke into the Egyptian Museum in Cairo last week.

The spectre of the fall of Baghdad in 2003 looms large in the minds of Egyptologists, when thousands millennia-old artefacts were stolen or smashed by looters in the chaos following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

"The situation during the fall of Baghdad is the worst case scenario, but we think that's not going to happen because there is such a movement to protect the antiquities," said Karen Exell, chairwoman of Britain's Egypt Exploration Society and curator of the Egypt collection at the Manchester Museum.

Egyptologists have been heartened by the reaction of ordinary Egyptians to chaos and lawlessness.     In Cairo hundreds of people formed a chain around the museum to protect it after looters broke into the museum on Friday and destroyed two Pharaonic mummies, officials said.