Mubarak Announces That He Won't Seek Reelection, Then Sends in Thugs to Deal With Protesters

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5tmzRI0HM4&w=575&h=390%5D

Things got wild(er) in Egypt after President Mubarak announced yesterday he will not be stepping down. Instead, he said he would not be seeking to run again in the upcoming elections and alluded vaguely to orchestrating the transfer of power at some point in the future. Obviously, that’s too little, too late for the protesters, who are still holding on in the streets. Some estimates posit that there were close to two million people in Tahrir Square yesterday.

But the demonstrations turned messy and violent, as pro-Mubarak supporters—believed to be paid thugs frequently used by the regime to intimidate civilians—began clashing with his opponents. In this eery raw video, people can be seen throwing rocks, bottles, whatever is lying around. There are also what look to be firebombs. According to reports trickling in via Twitter, Mubarak “supporters” stormed the square on camel- and horse-back, and have been throwing teargas and molotov cocktails.

In other words, Mubarak is giving the Egyptian populace an ultimatum: withstand chaos and violence at the hands of my goons, or I stick around and things go back to semi-normal. Eeek.