President Hosni Mubarak ordered troops and tanks into Egyptian cities today in an attempt to quell street fighting and growing mass protests demanding an end to his 30-year rule.
Mubarak, facing a challenge that could send shock waves through the Middle East, also declared a curfew. But thousands stayed on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez - the epicentre of four days of protest.
Shots were heard near parliament and the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party was in flames, the blaze lighting up the night sky. Cheering demonstrators thronged around armoured cars that moved in a long convoy through Cairo.
Tanks were also seen in the capital and in Suez.
Medical sources said 13 people had been killed in protests in the eastern city of Suez and 75 wounded. They did not specify whether they were protesters or police who were killed, or how they died. They said 1,030 had been wounded in the protests in Cairo, up from an earlier estimate of 870.
Demonstrations involving tens of thousands of people were the biggest and bloodiest in four consecutive days of protests by people fed up with unemployment, poverty, corruption and the lack of freedom under Mubarak.
Protesters shouted "Down, Down, Hosni Mubarak", some throwing stones at police.
Mubarak, a close US ally, has built an autocratic administration, citing an Islamist threat to the country. But the main Islamist opposition appear to have played little if any role in this week's protests.
There were rumours that Mubarak would address the nation, but by late evening he had not made any public appearance.
In Washington, the White House said it would review its aid policy towards Egypt based on the events of coming days. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Washington was deeply concerned by violence used by the security forces.
This evening marked the first time the army had been put onto the streets in the current crisis. It was not immediately clear what role it would play or how troops would react to the rotesters.
"The armed forces started to deploy forces in the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez as a first stage in implementing the decree...imposing a curfew starting from 6pm," the official news agency reported.
Some 2,000-3,000 people encircled a military vehicle near Cairo's Tahrir square, a witness said.
They climbed on it, shaking hands with the soldiers, and chanted: "The army and the people are united" and "The revolution has come".
In the eastern city of Suez, site of the strategically crucial canal, armoured cars deployed in front of the charred remains of a police station, a witness said.
Dozens of protesters climbed on the military vehicles in Suez. They talked to soldiers who attempted to wave them off.
The unrest in Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere was triggered by the overthrow two weeks ago of Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Al Ben Ali.
Snatch squads of plain clothes security men dragged off suspected ringleaders. At the Fatah mosque in central Ramses Square in Cairo, several thousand were penned in and tear gassed.
Protesters often quickly dispersed and regrouped.
Some held banners saying: "Everyone against one" and chanted "Peaceful peaceful peaceful, no violence." Others threw shoes at and stamped on posters of Mubarak. "Leave, leave, Mubarak, Mubarak, the plane awaits you," people chanted.
Activist Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Laureate, was briefly penned in by police after he prayed at a mosque in the Giza area but he later took part in a peaceful march with supporters. Arabiya television said later police had "asked" him to stay home but this could not be confirmed.
In some parts of Cairo, protests were peaceful. Dozens of people prayed together on one road. In Giza, on the city outskirts, marchers shook hands with the police who let them pass peacefully.
It is far from a foregone conclusion that the protesters will force Mubarak out given the strength of the security forces in Egypt.
The head of the opposition Wafd party, Sayyid al-Badawi, said Egypt needed a period of transitional rule, new parliamentary elections and an amended constitution to prevent a president serving for more than two six-year terms.
Wafd, a decades old liberal, nationalist party, boycotted the parliament election in November saying the vote was rigged in favour of Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
Before today's clashes, at least five people had been killed over the four days, one of them a police officer. Police have arrested several hundred people.
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood opposition group, including at least eight senior officials, were rounded up overnight. The government has accused the Brotherhood of planning to exploit the protests.
Many protesters are young men and women. Two thirds of Egypt's 80 million people are below 30 and many have no jobs. About 40 per cent of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day.
Elections were due to be held in September and until now few had doubted that Mubarak would remain in control or bring in a successor in the shape of his 47-year-old son Gamal.
Father and son deny that Gamal is being groomed for the job.
Reuters