Egypt celebrates end of dictator Mubarak's rule
Cries of “Egypt is free” rang out and fireworks lit up the sky as hundreds of thousands danced, wept and prayed in joyful pandemonium after 18 days of peaceful pro-democracy protests forced President Hosni Mubarak to surrender power to the military, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.
Ecstatic protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir, or Liberation, Square hoisted soldiers onto their shoulders and families posed for pictures in front of tanks in streets flooded with people streaming out to celebrate.
Strangers hugged each other, some fell to kiss the ground, and others stood stunned in disbelief.
Chants of “Hold your heads high, you’re Egyptian” roared with each burst of fireworks overhead.
“I’m 21 years old and this is the first time in my life I feel free,” an ebullient Abdul-Rahman Ayyash, born eight years after Mr Mubarak came to power, said as he hugged fellow protesters in Tahrir Square, where crowds remained all through the night.
An astonishing day in which hundreds of thousands marched on Mr Mubarak’s palaces in Cairo and Alexandria and besieged state TV was capped by the military effectively carrying out a coup at the pleas of protesters.
After Mr Mubarak’s fall, the military, which pledged to shepherd reforms for greater democracy, told the nation it would announce the next steps soon.
Those could include the dissolving of parliament and creation of a transitional government.
Mr Mubarak’s downfall at the hands of the biggest popular uprising in the modern history of the Arab world has implications for the United States and the West, Israel, and the region, unsettling rulers across the Mideast.
The 82-year-old leader epitomised the complex trade-off the United States was locked into in the Middle East for decades: support for autocratic leaders in return for stability, a bulwark against Islamic militants, a safeguard of economic interests with the oil-rich Gulf states and peace – or at least an effort at peace – with Israel.
The question for Washington now was whether that same arrangement will hold as the Arab world’s most populous state makes a potentially rocky transition to democracy, with no guarantee of the results.
At the White House, President Barack Obama said “Egyptians have inspired us.”
He noted the important questions that lay ahead, but said: “I’m confident the people of Egypt can find the answers.”
The United States at times seemed overwhelmed during the upheaval, fumbling to juggle its advocacy of democracy and the right to protest, its loyalty to long-time ally Mr Mubarak and its fears the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood - or more radical groups – could gain a foothold.
Mr Mubarak’s fall came 32 years to the day after the collapse of the shah’s government in Iran, the prime example of a revolution that turned to Islamic militancy.
In Egypt, persecuted democracy activists frequently denounced the US government for not coming down harder on Mr Mubarak’s rights abuses.
Washington’s mixed messages during the crisis frustrated the young protesters. They argued that while the powerful Brotherhood will have to be allowed to play a future political role, its popularity would be diminished in an open system where other ideologies are freed to outweigh it.
Neighbouring Israel watched with the crisis with unease, worried that their 1979 peace treaty could be in danger. It quickly demanded that post-Mubarak Egypt continue to adhere to it.
