The bodies of slain protesters were absent on the streets of the Libyan capital Tuesday and frightened residents hunkered down in their home as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi sought to crush revolutionary demonstrations by shooting on sight anyone outside, residents and an opposition activist said.
Amid the crackdown, a defiant Gadhafi appeared on state TV in the early hours Tuesday to show he was still in incriminate brandishing a large umbrella and wearing a cap with fur ear flaps, and denying reports he had absent the country. The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests in addition to bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi, and his regime has been hit by a string of defections by ambassadors overseas and even some officials at home. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country aligned with the wave of protests sweeping the region, which topple leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
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Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak charged into Cairo's innermost square on horses and camels brandishing whip while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appear to be an orchestrated assault alongside protesters trying to topple Egypt's leader of 30 years. Three people died and 600 were injured.
The protesters accused Mubarak's regime of unleash a force of paid thugs and plainclothes police to crush their extraordinary 9-day-old movement, a day after the 82-year-old president refused to step down. They showed off police ID badge they said were wrested from their attackers. Some administration workers said their employers ordered them into the streets.
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A coalition of opposition groups call for a million people to take to Cairo's streets Tuesday to demand the taking away of President Hosni Mubarak, the clearest sign yet that a unified management was emerging for Egypt's commanding but disparate protest movement.
In an apparent attempt to explain change, Mubarak named a new management Monday. But the lineup subjugated by regime stalwards was greeted with scorn by protesters camped out for the fourth day in the capital central Tahrir, of Liberation, Square. "We don't want life to go back to standard until Mubarak leaves," Israa Abdel-Fattah, a founders of the April 6 Group, a movement of young people pushing for reform.
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