Mubarak left Egypt: sources

11 February 2011 01:44 pm

Egypt’s three-decade ruler Hosni Mubarak has left the country, noting an address he is scheduled to deliver in a few hours is taped, media reports said quoting Presidential sources.

The reports by presidential sources came on Thursday on the heels of remarks by Hossan Badrawi, the general secretary of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party, who said Mubarak will “probably” address the nation in the evening.

He told state-funded BBC that he hopes Mubarak will transfer power to Vice President Omar Suleiman.

Unconfirmed reports also said Mubarak had already travelled to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with his army chief of staff.
Other reports indicated that the Egyptian army has taken over presidential powers, saying it supports the legitimate demands of people and that it is taking measures to protect the people.

Essam al-Erian, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's biggest opposition group, said he feared that the Egyptian military was staging a coup.

“It looks like a military coup ... I feel worry and anxiety,” he told Reuters. “The problem is not with the president, it is with the regime.”
Egyptian state television showed images of Mubarak sitting behind a desk in silence while Suleiman talked. It was not immediately clear when it was filmed, though the channel said the meeting was happening now.



Opposition supporters attend Friday prayers in Tahrir Square in Cairo February 11, 2011. Egypt's powerful army pledged on Friday to guarantee President Hosni Mubarak's reforms in a move to defuse a popular uprising, but many angry protesters said this failed to meet their key demand that he resign immediately. REUTERS