CAIRO — The battle had gone on for hours, and the end of the bridge was in sight. Somewhere past the green armored cars and through the smoke was Liberation Square. For miles the protesters had marched peacefully, shouting at balconies for their neighbors to join them.
But water cannons and tear gas halted the march, for a time. Atef Badr, 28, turned to the retreating protesters with tears stirred by the moment, not the gas. “I’m begging you,” he screamed. “All of you in the back, come forward!”
A few tear gas canisters got caught in the wind and drifted away toward the river: an opportunity. The protesters surged forward, chanting, “Overthrow Mubarak!” They gained ground and then lost it, when the dull metal gas canisters started falling again.
So it went all afternoon on the Kasr al-Nil Bridge, as thousands of protesters tried again and again to get past the riot police, who were just as determined to keep them at bay: first with gas and water cannons, and then by beating them with truncheons.
The long struggle for the bridge set the tone for the momentous events throughout the country on Friday. Egyptians slowly shed their fear of President Hosni Mubarak’s police state and confronted its power, a few halting steps at a time.
The protesters came from every social class and included even wealthy Egyptians, who are often dismissed as apolitical, or too comfortable to mobilize. For some of them in the crowd on Friday, the brutality of the security forces was a revelation. “Dogs!” they yelled at the riot police, as they saw bloodied protesters dragged away. “These people are Egyptians!”
Continue reading - NY Times - Egyptian Hopes Converge in Fight for Cairo Bridge
28th Jan. 2011 - Storyful - Egypt Cairo uprising protest video - Mohamed Ibrahim Elmasry
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