Egypt Update- Egyptian Army Deploys to Cairo; Ancient Artifacts Destroyed By Looters; Foreigners Start Exodus from Country

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered the Egyptian Army into Cairo over the weekend in an attempt to curb looting and the escalating unrest in the capital city and throughout the rest of Egypt.

Protesters had defied a curfew for the 4th straight night in Cairo while the Army kept the protests mostly confined to Tahrir Square. A spokesman for the Egyptian Military said that they would not fire on protesters peacefully demonstrating, but added they would not tolerate "any act that destabilizes security of the country" or damage property.

With the Army and police dealing with the massive demonstrations or guarding government installations, some Egyptians have taken advantage of the deteriorating security situation. Looting had also broken out in Cairo and other cities across Egypt with young men on motorcycles breaking into shopping centers, restaurants, banks, casinos, private homes and carting away electronics food, alcohol, TV sets, money, jewelry and furniture. Outside the city, the state run TV network reported that car dealerships on the highway between Cairo and Alexandria had been broken into and looted while entire bank branches were abandoned.

Some neighborhoods had set up their own watch groups armed with knives, clubs, guns and metal pipes to ward off looters while boarding up nearby shops and homes in the absence of any police or military presence.

Members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood took advantage of the deteriorating security situation by springing jailed members of both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood from prison.

But the most infamous example of looters in Egypt occurred over the weekend when nine men entered Cairo's Egyptian Museum through the skylight and beheaded two mummies and stole ancient Egyptian jewelry and masks that were on display. Although the looters were caught by a crowd that was forming a human chain around the museum and the Egyptian Army is now guarding the museum, several historic and irreplaceable artifacts were destroyed by the looters.

Historians and archaeologists are concerned that the police or military are presently unable to protect smaller museums that are home to a number of equally important artifacts.

[Egyptologist Dr.] Hawass said many valuable artifacts have already been taken and some of the country's lesser known museums have been emptied of their treasures, including the one in Memphis — the capital of ancient Egypt, about 19 kilometres south of Cairo.

Hawass said the Coptic Museum, Royal Jewelry Museum, National Museum of Alexandria and El Manial Museum had all been broken into.

He also said he is afraid the ruling National Democratic Party headquarters in Cairo, torched and vandalized by demonstrators on Friday, could collapse and topple onto the 100-year-old Museum of Egyptian Antiquities next door.

The embassies of the USA, India, Canada, Turkey, the UK and other nations in the country have warned residents to avoid travelling to Egypt begun airlifting or making arrangements to airlift citizens out of the country.