Cairo - Police fought protesters in two cities in eastern Egypt on Thursday and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei arrived back in the country to join a major demonstration on Friday to try to oust President Hosni Mubarak.
Security forces shot dead a Bedouin protester in the north of Egypt's Sinai region on Thursday, bringing the death toll to five on the third day of protests inspired by unrest which toppled Tunisia's president earlier this month.
In a sign of open defiance against authoritarian rulers was spreading in the region, police also clashed with protesters in the Arabian Peninsula state of Yemen and Gabon in West Africa.
In the Egyptian city of Suez, police fired rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators calling for an end to Mubarak's 30-year-old rule. Protesters chucked rocks and petrol bombs at police lines.
Hundreds of demonstrators remained on the streets of Suez late into Thursday night. Smoke from fires lit on the roads filled the air while teargas hung in the air in some areas of the city, forcing people to cover their mouths with tissues.
In Ismailia, hundreds of protesters clashed with police who dispersed the crowds with teargas as support spread for a planned wave of protests on Friday, initiated on the Facebook social networking website.
“I will participate,” ElBaradei, who has campaigned for reform in Egypt, said on flying in from his home in Vienna, where he used to lead the UN’s nuclear watchdog. “I wish we did not have to go out on the streets to press the regime to act,” said the Egyptian.
The United States, which views Mubarak as a vital ally and bulwark of Middle Eastern peace, has called for calm and urged Egypt to make reforms to meet the protesters' demands. It also fears that Islamic radicals could exploit continuing anger.
“This isn't a choice between the government and the people of Egypt,” said White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs. “This is not about taking sides.”
He added: “What is important is President Mubarak and those that seek greater freedom of expression, greater freedom to assemble, should be able to work out a process for that happening in a peaceful way.”
As in many other countries in the region, protesters in Egypt complain about surging prices, unemployment and the authorities' reliance on heavy-handed security to keep dissenting voices quiet.
Speaking earlier to Reuters in Vienna, ElBaradei said that it was time for Mubarak to step aside. “He has served the country for 30 years and it is about time for him to retire,” said ElBaradei, who won the peace prize for his work at the International Atomic Energy Agency.
His arrival could spur protesters who have no figurehead, although many activists resent his absences abroad in recent months.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif urged citizens to exercise self control on Friday, the cabinet spokesman told reporters.
On Thursday, Egyptians torched a police post in Suez in response to the killing of three demonstrators earlier in the week, a Reuters witness said.
“Our government is a dictatorship. A total dictatorship,” said Mohamed Fahim, a 29-year-old glass factory worker, as he stood near the charred skeleton of a car. “It's our right to choose our government ourselves. We have been living 29 years, my whole life, without being able to choose a president.”
On Wednesday evening, people in Suez had tried to burn down a government building, another police post and a local office of Egypt's ruling party before police stopped them. The government has said it intervened there against what it called vandalism.
One policeman has been killed in Cairo in the protests, unprecedented during Mubarak's rule. - Reuters