Breaking News .... he has stepped down
CAIRO — Hosni Mubarak left Cairo for the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, according to sources and officials, after protesters marched on his main presidential palace and held vast rallies across Egypt.
NBC News reported Mubarak had left from Almaza military airport with his family, citing a high-ranking official and a security source, and the news was later confirmed by a local government official.
However the significance of the move was unclear as Mubarak regularly travels to the town on the southern tip of the Sinai region, where he has a palace.
Mubarak passed most of his powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman Thursday night, rebuffing the demands of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators that he step down immediately.
U.S. officials told NBC News that despite confusion over a speech by Mubarak Thursday — in which he appeared to suggest he was still ultimately in charge — the Obama administration was confident that Suleiman was now running the country.
A White House official said Mubarak's decision to leave Cairo was a "positive first step."
And a U.S. official told NBC News that "clearly with his departure to Sharm, the transition is underway... but particular aspects are still being resolved."
The U.S. officials also said they were "encouraged by the restraint shown by the (Egyptian) military" so far Friday and also that the protesters had remained "peaceful and not turned to violence."
However, in the north Sinai town of el-Arish, there was a potentially alarming development with Reuters reporting that about 1,000 people attacked a police station in an attempt to free prisoners.
Witnesses said they threw Molotov cocktails and exchanged gunfire with police who retreated to the roof. Al-Jazeera television reported the attackers were protesters who broke away from the main demonstration in el-Arish.
'Farewell Friday'
Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo for a huge rally on what they called "Farewell Friday."
This came despite an offer by the army to ensure 30-year-old emergency laws were lifted and free and fair elections held.
The military's comments were seen as a major push to end the worst crisis in Egypt's modern history, but also contained a clear signal that it wanted demonstrators off the streets.
Live television pictures from Alexandria showed massed ranks of people filling a main boulevard in the city and Al-Jazeera reported there were other demonstrations in Suez, Mahala, Tanta and Ismailia.
The protesters' pledge to march from the central Tahrir (Liberation) Square to the presidential palace raised fears of a confrontation between elite troops and demonstrators.
A crowd of more than 1,000 people were already there by midday, demanding he resign immediately. The army did not try to remove them, a Reuters witness said.
The protesters gathered up against a barbed wire cordon around the palace, about 50 yards from the palace walls at its closest point. Six tanks and armored vehicles separated the protesters from the building.
"Down, down Hosni Mubarak!" chanted the protesters. A sign delivering the same message was attached to razor wire blocking one of the entrances to the residence.
."We'll have masses of Egyptians after Friday prayer to take it over," said Ahmed Farouk, 27. "The army has been neutral and did not harm any of us," he added.
"We will march to the palace and oust Mubarak, and we know the world is on our side," said Nurhaan Ismael, a protester, 34.
"The army is relaxed at the moment. They put barbed wire all around (the roads to the palace) but they know the will of the people will topple anything," Ismael told Reuters.
What are you waiting for?" one protester yelled in the face of an army officer outside the palace.
"Did you sign an oath and pledge your allegiance to the president or the people?" another shouted.
One activist, tweeting as monasosh, said a field hospital by been set up outside the palace, where numbers were increasing.
