'Egypt is Free,' crowds chant after Mubarak quits

   CAIRO (AP) _ Cries of ``Egypt is free'' rang out and fireworks
it up the sky as hundreds of thousands danced, wept and prayed in
joyful pandemonium Friday 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
Mubarak came to power, said as he hugged fellow protesters in Tahrir
Square.

   An astonishing day in which hundreds of thousands marched on
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 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.

   Mubarak's downfall at the hands of the biggest popular uprising
in the modern history of the Arab world had stunning implications
for the United States and the West, Israel, and the region,
unsettling rulers across the Mideast.

   The 82-year-old leader epitomized 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 longtime ally Mubarak and its fears the
fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood _ or more radical groups _ could
gain a foothold. Mubarak's fall came 32 years to the day after the
collase 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
U.S. government for not coming down harder on 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.

   Neighboring Israel watched with the crisis with unease, worried
that their 1979 peace treaty could be in danger. It quickly demanded
on Friday that post-Mubarak Egypt continue to adhere to it.

   Any break seems unlikely in the near term. The military
leadership supports the treaty. Anti-Israeli feeling is strong among
Egyptians, and a more democratic government may take a tougher line
toward Israel in the chronically broken-down peace process. But few
call for outright abrogating a treaty that has kept peace after
three wars in the past half-century.

   From the oil-rich Gulf states in the east to Morocco in the west,
regimes both pro- and anti-U.S. could not help but worry they could
see a similar upheaval. Several of the region's rulers have made
pre-emptive gestures of democratic reform to avert their own protest
movements.

   The lesson many took: If it could happen in only three weeks in
Egypt, where Mubarak's lock on power appeared unshakable, it could
happen anywhere. Only a month earlier, Tunisia's president was
forced to step down in the face of protests.

   ``This is the greatest day of my life.'', Nobel Peace laureate
Mohammed ElBaradei, whose young supporters were among the organizers
of the protest movement, told The Associated Press.

   ``The country has been liberated after decades of repression,''
he said adding that he expects a ``beautiful'' transition of power.
Perhaps most surprising was the genesis of the force that
overthrew Mubarak.

   The protests were started by a small core of secular, liberal
youth activists organizing on the Internet who only a few months
earlier struggled to gather more than 100 demonstrators at a time.

But their work through Facebook and other social network sites over
the past few years built greater awareness and bitterness among
Egyptians over issues like police abuse and corruption.

  ``Facebook brought down the regime,'' said Sally Toma, one of the
main protest organizers.

   When the online activists called the first major protest, on Jan.
25, they tapped into a public inspired by Tunisia's revolt and
thousands turned out, beyond even the organizers' expectations. From

there, protests swelled, drawing hundreds of thousands. The Muslim
Brotherhood joined in. But far from hijacking the protests as many
feared, it often seemed co-opted by the protesters, forced to set
aside its hard-line ideology at least for now to adhere to
democratic demands.

      Ahmed Kassam, an engineer, said he marched with crowds for two
hours across Cairo from Tahrir to the Oruba palace. ``We were
shouting at people standing in their balconies and they came down
and joined us. We have thousands behind us,'' he said. ``Today I
feel that something is going to change. I feel very, very
powerful.''

   Protesters stormed the main security headquarters in southern
Egypt's main city Assiut, and two were killed by police opening fire
before the province's governor was forced to flee, escorted to
safety by the army.

   The ousted Mubarak himself flew to his isolated palace in the Red
Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, 250 miles from the turmoil in Cairo.
   Suleiman _ who appears to have lost his vice president's post as
well in the military takeover _ appeared grim as he delivered the
short announcement on state TV Friday night that Mubarak was
stepping down.

   ``In these grave circumstances that the country is passing
through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position
as president of the republic,'' he said. ``He has mandated the Armed
Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and
succor.''

   The question now turned to what happens next. Protesters on
Friday had overtly pleaded for the army to oust Mubarak. The country
is now ruled by the Armed Forces Supreme Council, consisting of the
military's top generals and headed by Defense Minister Field Marshal
Hussein Tantawi

   After Mubarak's resignation, a military spokesman appeared on
state TV and promised the army would not act as a substitute for a
government based on the ``legitimacy of the people.''
   He said the military was preparing the next steps needed ``to
acheive the ambitions of our great nation'' and would announce them
soon. He praised Mubarak for his contributions to the country.

Pointedly, he did not salute his former commander-in-chief. Instead
he stood at attention and raised his hand to his cap in a salute to
protesters killed in the unrest.

   Abdel-Rahman Samir, one of the protest organizers, said the
movement would now open negotiations with the military over
democratic reforms but vowed protests would continue to ensure
change is carried out.

   ``We still don't have any guarantees yet _ if we end the whole
situation now, then it's like we haven't done anything,'' he said.
``So we need to keep sitting in Tahrir until we get all our
demands.''

   But, he added, ``I feel fantastic. .... I feel like we have
worked so hard, we planted a seed for a year and a half and now we
are now finally sowing the fruits.''

   For the moment, concerns over the next step were overwhelmed by
the wave of joy and disbelief _ and an overwhelming pride that they
had waged a peaceful campaign crowned with success.

   In Tahrir Square, the crowds of several hundred thousand watched
and listed to Suleiman's speech on televisions and on mobile-phone
radios. When he finished, they burst into wild cheers, waving flags
and chanting ``Allahu akbar,'' or ``God is Great'' and ``the people
have brought down the regime.''

   Spontaneous lines of dancers threaded through the packed mass of
people. One man kissed the ground and thanked God while others
screamed, ``Hosni is gone, Hosni is gone.'' Around the capital of 18
million, cars honked their horns in celebration.

   ``I am 42 years old and my children can finally live in free,''
said Mahmoud Ghandem, who joined the Tahrir protests five days ago
from his Nile Delta town of Kafr el-Sheikh.

   Outside the Oruba presidential palace, one man sprawled on the
grass in shock amid the cheers. Others handed out sweets and waved
their hands in V-for-victory signs. The crowd then began to march in
a sea of Egyptian flags back to the protest's heart, Tahrir.

   Throughout the night, Tahrir Square and the surrounding downtown
streets were transformed into a massive party. Thousands streamed in
from across the city, jamming bridges over the Nile. Army
checkpoints surrounding the square for days melted away as some
soldiers threw themselves into the throngs. In the streets, parents
took pictures of their children posing with Egyptian flags.

   State television, a bastion of unwavering support for Mubarak,
had an almost instant change of tone. After disparaging the
protesters as foreign-backed troublemakers for days, it began
reporting the celebrations as a victory for freedom. Egyptians, one
reporter outside Oruba palace proclaimed, ``are able to move the
waters that have been still for 30 years.''

   Ala Moussa, a 24-year-old from Alexandria who came Friday to join
the Cairo protests, took off his glasses to wipe away tears. He had
been shot by a rubber bullet during earlier protests in his
hometown.

   ``For 50 years, it was a police state and we adapted ourselves to
it,'' he said. ``The question now is, can we take another route. I
hope so.''