Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Egypt's embattled President Hosni Mubarak has fled the burgeoning protest crowds of Cairo to the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, a source with close connections to Persian Gulf government figures told CNN on Friday.
Mubarak departed the Egyptian capital leaving the regime's daily workings in the hands of Vice President Omar Suleiman as he had pledged to do in his speech Thursday night.
But his refusal to stand down as head of state fueled fresh fury Friday on the streets of Cairo where protesters made their strongest stand yet in the 18 days of uprising in the Arab word's powerhouse nation.
The army made an attempt to appease the people with a publicly aired statement but its message fell on deaf ears as the crowds spilled out from central Tahrir Square and swelled in front of the state television building, the presidential palace and the parliament, all powerful symbols of Mubarak's three decades of authoritarian rule.
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Protesters rushed up to army barricades though the protests Friday remained largely peaceful.
But a key question lingered about where the military's allegiances will ultimately lie.
Earlier Friday, it sought to defuse the protests by issuing a communique but it was highly conditional. Read on state television, the statement said the army was ready to lift Egypt's emergency law "as soon as conditions allow."
Mubarak has used the emergency law, instituted after the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat, to rule Egypt with an iron hand for three decades. It allows police to detain people without charges, bars unauthorized assembly and restricts freedom of speech.
Protesters could not get inside the Nile Television building, the mouthpiece of the regime, protected behind barbed wire, barricades and a line of heavily armed soldiers. But tensions mounted as the demonstrations intensified throughout the day.
By and large, the crowds were adamant about remaining in central Cairo until their first and foremost demand was met: Mubarak's departure as head of state.
"We want this to be the biggest day for Egypt," said Mohammed Mahmoud, a protest organizer in Cairo. "We are sick of Mubarak's games. We want him out".
Other parts of Cairo resembled a ghost town, as many Egyptians headed to protest sites or stayed indoors for fear of violence. So far, the demonstrations have remained largely peaceful.
Protests erupted in other Egyptian cities as well.
Anti-Mubarak Egyptians marched down the seaside Corniche in Alexandria and in Suez, thousands of protesters chanting "Mubarak is a thief" surrounded the headquarters of a government compound, witnesses told CNN.
They said Mubarak's speech Thursday night fell far short because he refused to relinquish power. He had been expected to say he was leaving office but Mubarak said he was delegating authority to Suleiman, his recently appointed vice president.
Soldiers stepped in to erect a barrier between the Suez governorate compound and the protesters.
The military personnel there have been "good to the demonstrators," said protester Sameh Bakri. "They helped the people to put one banner on the governorate building. The banner had pictures of 18 martyrs who died in the recent clashes."
The military statement read on Nile TV also pledged to ensure free presidential elections, but made no mention of any plans to push Mubarak to resign.
Egypt's future hinges heavily on the role soldiers will play. Enraged anti-government protesters have called for the army to step in after Mubarak refused to step down. But others feared a brutal crackdown was now inevitable.
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"This now creates a massive crisis for the Egyptian military," analysts with Stratfor, a global intelligence company, said in a statement soon after Mubarak's speech Thursday night.
"As dawn breaks over Cairo, it is likely that large numbers of others will join the demonstrators and that the crowd might begin to move. The military would then be forced to stand back and let events go where they go, or fire on the demonstrators," the analysts said.
But protesters -- undeterred by fear and propelled by fury -- flooded Cairo's Tahrir Square Friday morning.
"It was a massive provocation. ... There is the potential for a bloodbath," actor and anti-government demonstrator Khalid Abdalla said Friday morning. "It's like he's asking us to step it up."
Yaser Fathi, one of the organizers of protests in Alexandria, said the military must intervene and push Mubarak out.
"Everyone in Egypt is disappointed ... We were hoping that it was almost over, but we will continue until the whole regime gets toppled," he said.
Egyptian state television Thursday ran video showing protesters shaking hands with the military, saying "Egypt is Changing."
Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, also stressed the role of the military.
"Entire nation is on the streets. Only way out is for regime to go. People power can't be crushed. We shall prevail. Still hope army can join," he said on Twitter.
In an opinion piece published in Friday's New York Times, ElBaradei called for immediate regime change.
"Egypt will not wait forever on this caricature of a leader we witnessed on television yesterday evening, deaf to the voice of the people, hanging on obsessively to power that is no longer his to keep," he wrote.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition movement, also denounced Mubarak's speech.
"The statements from Mubarak and his deputy are completely unacceptable by the people, and we are part of this great Egyptian people," said a statement issued Friday.
After Mubarak's speech, Speaker of the Parliament Ahmed Fathi Srour told Nile TV that Mubarak's move had put the authority for the day-to-day running of the government in Suleiman's hands. That would include oversight of the police, the Interior Ministry and other key agencies, control of economic policy and running any negotiations with the opposition.
"The vice president is the de facto president," Egypt's ambassador to the United States, Sameh Shoukry, told CNN, shortly after Mubarak spoke.
Suleiman asked Egypt's prime minister to select a deputy to "lead the national dialogue," Egyptian state television reported Friday.
Suleiman said the deputy prime minister should be selected from the Council of the Wise, a group of prominent Egyptians who have been trying to bridge the gap between the regime and anti-government demonstrators.
Mubarak stressed -- as he has before -- that he would not run for another term in September. He also expressed regret for any loss of life and said he would move to repeal Article 179 of the Egyptian constitution, which allows him to send anyone suspected of terrorism to a military court, "as soon as we regain stability and security."
Suleiman addressed the nation soon after Mubarak, urging Egyptians to remain calm and go back to work.
He said he was committed to doing "whatever it takes in order to have an orderly transition of powers in accordance with the provisions of the constitution."
"Go back to your houses. Go back to your work. The homeland needs your work," Suleiman said.
Fouad Ajami, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University, told CNN that speeches by Mubarak and Suleiman Thursday night were "more chilling" in Arabic.
"There's an eerie quality to both men, both old men refusing to accept the world. There is something almost Orwellian ... it's almost Kafkaesque. These are men that live in a parallel universe. They really don't know the world around them. And these speeches of theirs which alternate (between) threats and inducement, acceptance of the world but also a warning to people," he said.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Thursday that more reforms were necessary.
"Mubarak's speech is far from the needed break with the abusive system of the past 30 years," he said. "Cosmetic changes are not enough to meet the Egyptian people's demands for democracy and human rights."
The monitoring group, which has been deeply critical of the government's handling of the crisis, has documented 302 deaths since the January 25 rally that ignited Egypt's revolt.
Mubarak's refusal to step down caught the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama off guard, a senior U.S. official told CNN.
"Not what we were told would happen and not what we wanted to happen," the official, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity, said of Mubarak's speech.
Obama released a statement late Thursday, calling on the Egyptian government to do more.
"The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient," he said. "Too many Egyptians remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy, and it is the responsibility of the government to speak clearly to the Egyptian people and the world."
Source :http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/11/egypt.protests/index.html?hpt=T1
