I have been in Cairo since the early hours of Sunday morning. My colleague and I decided to break the curfew before 7am. We left the airport with the only taxi driver who would take us, a guy from Gaza who was driving a 1972 vintage stretch mercedes that had since many better days.We drove in to the down town area to be met by the first of many vilgilante checkpoints. The checkpoints had sprung up in response to looters taking advantage of the police pulling back from the streets. The checkpoint guards are all concerned citizens who have armed themselves with shotguns,baseball batts and even kitchen knvies taped to broom handles. These checkponts in some areas are literally ever 50 meters.
in the last couple of days the tensions at these checkpoint have rocketed as the some guys manning the checkpoints are delirious with lack of sleep. These checkpoints are manned by upto sometimes 30 people especially those crossing the Nile bridges. One guard I spoke to had witnessed the beating to death of one of a pair of looters in his neighbourhood the previous night
I spent all of yesterday and most of the evening in Taherer Sq. with the protestors. The noise was truly deafening, the constant shouts of "down with Mubarak" and "Hurreya" ,freedom in Arabic. Little did I know that today would bring such a momentous backlash from the pro Mubarak protestors. The early part of the day was noisy and energetic running around the city with the rival groups. Then the anarchy started with the horses and the camels in the square. As I turn in for the evening,I can see the odd muzzle flash in the distance and certainly hear the gun fire and the constant sound of the Sikorsky helicopters buzzing over the square. What chaos will tomorrow bring, bukkara inshallah
