Anti-Mubarak activists gather in Cairo square for ‘departure day’ protest

ens of thousands packed central Cairo Friday, waving flags and singing the national anthem, emboldened in their campaign to oust President Hosni Mubarak after they repelled pro-regime attackers in two days of bloody street fights. The U.S. was pressing Egypt for a swift start toward greater democracy, including a proposal for Mr. Mubarak to step down immediately.
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Thousands, including families with children, flowed over bridges across the Nile into Tahrir Square, a sign the movement was not intimidated after fending off everything thrown by Mr. Mubarak’s supporters – storms of hurled concrete, metal rebar and firebombs, fighters on horses and camels and automatic gunfire barrages.

In the wake of the violence, more detailed scenarios were beginning to emerge for a transition to democratic rule after Mr. Mubarak's nearly 30-year authoritarian reign. The Obama administration said it was discussing several possibilities with Cairo – including one for Mr. Mubarak to leave office now and hand over power to a military-backed transition.

Protesters in the square held up signs reading “Now!”, massing around 100,000 in the largest gathering since the quarter-million who rallied Tuesday. They labelled Friday's rally the “day of leaving,” the day they hope Mr. Mubarak will go.

Thousands prostrated themselves in the noon prayers, then immediately after uttering the prayer's concluding “God's peace and blessings be upon you,” they began chanting their message to Mr. Mubarak: “Leave! Leave! Leave!” A man sitting in a wheelchair was lifted – wheelchair and all – over the heads of the crowd and he pumped his arms in the air.

Those joining in passed through a series of beefed-up checkpoints by the military and the protesters themselves guarding the square. In the afternoon, a group of Mubarak supporters gathered in a square several blocks away and tried to move on Tahrir, banging with sticks on metal fences to raise an intimidating clamour. But protesters throwing rocks pushed them back.