Page 3 - Inside The Square News Today

>> you were out there in the crowd today. you got roughed up in the crowd, as did we, and well show you some of the video coming up. but i think one of the most disturbing things from my perspective is watching the egyptian troops standing by, these are troops that had controlled access to the square for days now. they had been searching anti-mubarak demonstrators. i didnt see any troops patting down pro mubarak demonstrators and they clearly had weapons with them and they started launching -- >...

Democracy demonstrators. >> you have no doubt this was state sponsored? >> its been going on 15 hours. mang in times -- imagine in times square if you had two gangs fighting together for 15 hours and the government didnt intervene. theres no other explanation. when demonstrators come out on the streets in normal times, youll have 500 riot police around them. this has been going on for 15 hours. the army stands by, and these men are allowed to come and go, and ive seen them walking up and down on...

Others are party members. i can tell you that ive seen many times this sort of dynamic of the sort of the so-called pro government people going into demonstrations. back in 2005, when there was a surge of democracy, pro democracy activism here, there was demonstrations where these men would show up with the police and they would be plain clothes. they were paid 20 pounds and a pill of viagra. that was their pay to go out and beat the crap out of people, including dragging women out of the crowd,...

The beating heart of this region, it cannot fail to have an impact on the rest of the region. this is so strategically crucial region. thats what struck me. seeing the faces of 18, 19, 20-year-olds, regardless of what side they were on, determined the future of an entire region on this planet, that really matters politically, militarily, strategically, to all of us. >> when we come back, were going to also talk with john king and dr. ajami and show you some of what happened on the streets today....

600 plus. whats going to happen tomorrow? because still the egyptian military, as far as we know, has not moved in in any way to separate the two sides. >> it appears that the pro-mubarak people have pulled back to some extent. we could expect a repetition of what we saw today. >> theres nothing to stop it? >> no, nothing at all. nobody is stopping it. >> were hearing more gunfire. ivan watson, you are in the square in the area where the anti-mubarak supporters have been for this entire period, ...

By the mob of opposition activists and beaten as hes taken away to some kind of holding area that the opposition militants have set up. hes being beaten with sticks at one end of the square, and weve seen that repeatedly throughout the day. theres a loudspeaker here -- >> how many wounded do you see out there? >> reporter: weve heard them saying "jihad, jihad, prepare for your martyrdom soon." i think these people are ready to fight to the death here to protect this area. >> i want to bring in b...

Ivan watson, who is live in the square, has been seeing newly wounded people being brought back from what is essentially the front line of this pitched battle by the museum. ivan, are you still seeing the wounded? >> reporter: i havent seen an ambulance come through in a while. many of the people who are circulating here are bandaged, are wearing bloody bandages and slings. and perhaps one of the strangest things is that some of them have made these makeshift helmets out of pieces of cardboard t...

And water? are they able to get more protestors into the square to support them or are they hemmed in on all sides? >> reporter: i believe theyre hemmed in on all sides. im limited, because weve been holed up in a building here, really, since about -- more than 12 hours now, not feeling safe to go out, having barely gotten into this slightly safer place in the square. but i dont think theres any room for reinforcements to come in to support these people. they are surrounded and unable to leave. ...

That has been some of the tenner of the announcements made. at other times theyve told the men here to wake up and to rush to one end or the other end of the square to defend it. >> ben, i want to bring you in, because i heard somebody who was a supporter of the pro mubarak supporters saying on cnn that he felt the people in the square were hamas supporters, were hardline elements. >> no, i wouldnt say that. theres a certain percentage probably around 10% who you could characterize as members or...

Out towards the bridge that goes over the nile from liberation square, and as we were walking down that street, which is tahrir street, there was a lot of -- i mean, there was a cloud of rocks from the other side of the checkpoint that had been there the past few days, from the pro mubarak, anti-government protestors. so we realized that we couldnt go that way and looked for another route. >> are you going to try to get out of cairo now? >> not yet, not yet. im going to stay for a little bit lon...