CAIRO (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog turned Egyptian reform campaigner, arrived in Cairo on Thursday after saying it was time for President Hosni Mubarak to quit and that he was ready to "lead the transition" in Egypt if asked.
ElBaradei, 68, arrived from Vienna, where he lives, to join a growing wave of protests against Mubarak inspired by Tunisia's overthrow of their authoritarian president.
"It is a critical time in the life of Egypt. I have come to participate with the Egyptian people," said ElBaradei as he left Cairo airport, where he was greeted by a small group of supporters.
Mohammed ElBaradei "Some of my supporters urge me to lead the process of change, but I am not ready for that, but all I can do is to politically support the uprising," he said.
He added that he "will ask the officials in Egypt to respond to the people's demands."
"The desire for change must be respected," he said. "The regime must not use violence in the demonstrations."
"There is no other option"
If people, in particularly young people, if they want me to lead the transition I will not let them down Mohammed ElBaradei Pro-democracy activists vowed on Thursday to step up the largest anti-government protests in Egypt in three decades, despite mass arrests and mammoth security.
Earlier on Thursday, ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning, told Reuters shortly before he was due to leave Vienna for Cairo that Mubarak "has served the country for 30 years and it is about time for him to retire."
"Tomorrow is going to be, I think, a major demonstration all over Egypt and I will be there with them," he added, calling for peaceful protests.
"If people, in particularly young people, if they want me to lead the transition I will not let them down," ElBaradei told journalists at Vienna airport.
"My priority right now is to see a new Egypt and to see a new Egypt through peaceful transition," he added.
"I have to provide them with spiritual and political support," he said of the protesters.
"My goal is obviously to make sure that things will go in an orderly and peaceful way... I am going there to be with them."
"I continue to call on the regime to understand that they better listen and listen quickly, not use violence and understand that change has to come. There's no other option," ElBaradei also said.
Nationwide protests
A woman holds an Egyptian flag in front of riot police during a protest in Cairo Security forces shot dead a Bedouin protester in the north of Egypt's Sinai region on Thursday, eyewitnesses and a security source said, bringing the total number of protesters killed within the past couple of days to seven. Official sources put the number to five only.
The 22-year-old man, Mohamed Atef, was shot in the head while demonstrating in the town of Sheikh Zoweid, they said. Security forces fired tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters.
Egyptians torched a police post in the eastern city of Suez in the early hours of Thursday over the killing of protesters in anti-government demonstrations earlier in the week, a witness said.
Police fled the post before the protesters burned it using petrol bombs. Dozens more gathered in front of a second police post later in the morning demanding the release of their relatives who were detained in protests.
Demonstrations demanding the resignation of President Mubarak, in power since 1981, have raged since Tuesday across several cities.
In Suez, east of Cairo at the mouth of the Suez Canal, anti-riot police fired rubber-coated bullets, tear gas and water canon at hundreds of people gathered to demand the release of some 75 people arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The police is keeping self restraint to the maximum but when there is an illegitimate way of expression or destruction of property they interfere Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady An AFP photographer said protesters later hurled molotov cocktails at a fire station in the city, setting it ablaze.
"The police is keeping self restraint to the maximum but when there is an illegitimate way of expression or destruction of property they interfere," cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady told Reuters, speaking after violent clashes with police in the eastern city of Suez.
In Ismailiya to the north, witnesses reported that police were on Thursday firing tear gas at demonstrators, who were responding by throwing rocks.
At least 1,000 people have been arrested in Egypt’s biggest popular uprising in 30 years as the country enters its third “day of rage” on Thursday with people calling for political, social and economic reforms.
The protests, which, inspired by the groundbreaking revolt in Tunisia, have sent shockwaves across the region and prompted Washington to prod its long-time ally on democratic reforms.
"To continue what we started"
To continue what we started on Jan. 25, we will take to the streets to demand the right to life, liberty, dignity April Six Movement "At least 1,000 people have been detained around the country since the demonstrations started," on Tuesday, a security official told AFP.
Security was out in force on Thursday as more protests were expected.
Interior Minister Habib al-Adli, whose resignation is being demanded by the protesters, has dismissed the demonstrations.
"Egypt's system is not marginal or frail. We are a big state, with an administration with popular support. The millions will decide the future of this nation, not demonstrations even if numbered in the thousands," he told Kuwait's al-Rai newspaper, according to the newspaper's website.
"Our country is stable and not shaken by such actions."
Undaunted, members of the pro-democracy youth group April 6 Movement said they would defy a ban on demonstrations, vowing to take to the streets again on Thursday and calling for mass demonstrations after Friday's Muslim prayers.
Egypt protest map Thursday "will not be a holiday... street action will continue," the group said on its Facebook page.
"We've started and we won't stop," one demonstrator told AFP.
"To continue what we started on Jan. 25, we will take to the streets to demand the right to life, liberty, dignity and we call on everyone to take to the streets ... and to keep going until the demands of the Egyptian people have been met," the group said.
Abdel Rahman Youssef, of the National Association for Change, said in a text message that the group asked Egyptians to gather in the nearest square after Friday prayers with at least 10 other people.
The pro-democracy group circulated SMS messages and posted appeals on social networking site Facebook for fresh demonstrations "to demand the right to live with freedom and edignity."
A page on Facebook announcing Friday's protest gained 55,000 supporters in less than 24 hours.
Egyptian demonstrators clash with police in central Cairo "Egypt's Muslims and Christians will go out to fight against corruption, unemployment and oppression and absence of freedom," wrote an activist on Facebook, which alongside sites like Twitter have been key tools to rally people onto the streets.
Egypt's stock exchange halted trading on Thursday morning after the benchmark index slid more than 6 percent for a second day. The prices of two London-listed stocks focused on Egypt also tumbled.
The Egyptian pound has fallen to its lowest level in six-years against the U.S. dollar.
ElBaradei's return
Egyptian demonstrator holds her national flag during a protest Tunisia sent a very powerful message, ElBaradei said in an interview in Vienna Jan. 25. When Egyptians saw a country like Tunisia being able to do that, they realized that it is doable.
Egypt general prosecutor has charged 40 protesters with trying to "overthrow the regime," Al Arabiya TV reported Monday.
The authorities on Wednesday declared a ban on demonstrations, which police immediately enforced after having on Tuesday, the first day of the protests, stood back to allow the nationwide demonstrations to go ahead.
In running battles Wednesday afternoon and into the night, police chased demonstrators through the streets of a popular commercial district in Cairo, witnesses said.
Protesters responded by throwing rocks at police, damaging several shop fronts in an area near the information ministry.
There were also clashes as demonstrators pushed their way through a gate into the compound of the foreign ministry before being driven out with tear gas.
Protesters in the northeastern port city of Suez threw Molotov cocktails at a government building, setting parts of it on fire, witnesses said.
Others firebombed and occupied the headquarters there of the ruling National Democratic Party.
Medics said 55 protesters and 15 police were injured in Wednesday's clashes.
And dozens were arrested in Egypt's second city of Alexandria as they tried to reach a sea-front square to demonstrate, witnesses said.
"Legitimate means"
Präsident Hosni Mubarak
Mohammed el-Baradei

 Die seit Tagen stattfindenden Massendemonstrationen gegen die Regierung Ägyptens und seinen amtierenden Präsidenten, Husni Mubarak, dauerten auch heute an. Die Protestbewegung erhielt heute Unterstützung durch den ehemaligen Leiter der Internationalen Atomenergie-Organisation (IAEO) und Friedensnobelpreisträger, den Ägypter Mohammed el-Baradei. Der Oppositionspolitiker, der am Donnerstag in Ägypten eingetroffen war, forderte Mubarak offen zum Rückzug von seinem Amt auf.

Wörtlich sagte el-Baradei beim Verlassen des Flughafens in Kairo gegenüber Journalisten: „Es ist eine kritische Zeit im Leben Ägyptens. Ich bin gekommen um diesen Moment mit dem ägyptischen Volk zu teilen.“ Er fügte hinzu: „Einige meiner Anhänger drängen mich, den Veränderungsprozess zu führen, aber ich bin noch nicht so weit. Alles, was ich tun kann, ist die gegenwärtige Bewegung politisch zu unterstützen.“ Die Regierung forderte er dazu auf, den Willen des Volkes zu respektieren und keine Gewalt gegen Demonstranten einzusetzen. Bevor er in Wien das Flugzeug nach Kairo bestieg, hatte sich el-Baradei gegenüber Reuters etwas offensiver geäußert. Er sagte, dass Präsident Mubarak dem Land nun 30 Jahre gedient habe und dass es nun Zeit für ihn sei, sich zurückzuziehen. Wenn die jungen Menschen ihn dazu aufforderten, den Übergangsprozess zu führen, würde er sie nicht im Stich lassen.

Auf der ägyptischen Sinai-Halbinsel kam es im Verlauf des Donnerstags zu gewalttätigen Zusammenstößen zwischen protestierenden Beduinen und Polizeikräften. Zwei Menschen wurden dabei laut Augenzeugen getötet. Nach dem Tod einer Frau hatten mehrere bewaffnete Männer versucht, mit Panzerfäusten eine Polizeistation zu stürmen. Am Vortag war in der Ortschaft im Norden der Sinai-Halbinsel ein 27 Jahre alter Mann getötet worden. Zu schweren Auseinandersetzungen kam es auch in den Städten Ismailia und Suez, in der Nähe des Suez-Kanals. Im Stadtzentrum von Alexandria kam es bei einer Kundgebung ebenfalls zu Zusammenstößen mit Sicherheitskräften, die mehrere Menschen verhafteten.

Für den Freitag hat die Oppositionsbewegung zu landesweiten Großdemonstrationen aufgerufen. Die oppositionelle Muslimbruderschaft will sich erstmals ebenfalls an den Protesten beteiligen.