• Analysis: A battle may be won, but war will rage on for Syria's Assad

    Al-Manar TV via Reuters

    A man carrying a Syrian flag with an image of President Bashar Assad on it looks down from a clock tower in Qusair after the Syrian army took control of the city from rebel fighters in this still image taken from video, on Wednesday.

    By Paul Nassar, Producer, NBC News
    News analysis

    BEIRUT, Lebanon -- It is a picture nobody would have believed just a few short weeks ago.

    A young soldier clambered to the top of a badly damaged clock tower in the battered Syrian city of Qusair and planted the regime flag for all the world to see. In case there was any doubt as to his political leanings, he glued President Bashar Assad's smiling face onto the banner. Subtlety – like all good things in times of war – is easily sacrificed.

    There is no question that the fall of Qusair to Assad's forces is a major blow to rebels hoping to bring down the regime. This small western town straddles one of the major highways that link the capital Damascus to the Alawite strongholds on the Mediterranean coast. It is from these Alawite communities that Assad -- an Alawite (a sect of Shi'ite Islam) himself -- derives most of his power.

    More crucially for the rebels, the loss of Qusair means the loss of a major supply line into central Syria. The opposition in that specific area relied heavily on the Sunni community in neighboring Lebanon for arms and medical aid, so without Qusair their access to Lebanon will be severely handicapped.

    Syrian TV reports the government forces backed by Hezbollah fighters have taken the strategic town of Qusair that has been in opposition control since 2011. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    Should the Syrian regime manage to seal off the Lebanese border completely, then all the arms shipments and aid that accompanies them will dry up.

    However, as significant as this battle is for Assad, the victory in Qusair does not necessarily mean the civil war is anywhere near its end.

    The rebels still hold large swaths of the country – especially in the north, where they are better equipped than their fellow fighters in Qusair.

    Their lines of support are also much stronger. Northern Syria runs along the Turkish border for hundreds of miles and the Turkish government has openly supported the rebels with arms, supplies and all the available logistical back-up they need. This level of backing, as well as increased arms supplies from Arab states like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, is not likely to evaporate.

    Additionally, the European Union has lifted its self-imposed ban on supplying the rebels with arms. The events of the last few days may concentrate their minds further and speed up the supplies to the opposition.

    This war has claimed over 80,000 lives in almost two years. The number of injured is many times more. No regime, however coercive, can quell such a rebellion. Qusair was a major morale boost for the Syrian regime but Assad and his army should not forget that it took weeks of heavy fighting and the intervention of thousands of Hezbollah fighters to dislodge the rebels from the town.

    The victory was hardly a cakewalk and other battles will most likely be even harder to win.

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    /

    A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

    Launch slideshow

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  • Women violated in the cradle of Egypt's revolution, activists say

    Hania Moheeb, an Egyptian journalist assaulted in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, says attacks aimed at shaming women into silence will not succeed. By NBC News' Susan Kroll and Tracy Jarrett.

    By Susan Kroll and Marian Smith, NBC News

    Cairo's Tahrir Square, once the staging ground for the massive uprising that ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, is quickly becoming notorious for something very different: an organized campaign of sexual assaults, activists say.

    The past year has seen an increase in attacks against women at demonstrations, but recently they have been particularly rampant – and, according to witnesses and activists, they have been following similar patterns.

    On the two-year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, at least 19 women were sexually assaulted in and around Tahrir Square in one night, some with knives, activists said. Dozens more cases have been reported in the two months since.

    “The message to women is, ‘You should stay at home, you should stop protesting, you should feel stigmatized,’” said Hania Moheeb, an Egyptian journalist who was herself assaulted in the square that night.

    Moheeb, who writes for two English-language magazines and for a documentary program on Nile TV International, recently met female activists from around the Middle East at a conference in New York on women’s rights since the Arab Spring uprising. She described that at one point that night, she was certain she would die.

    Moheeb, 42, was trying to pass through the square when two men grabbed her from a group of women who had formed a circle around her, apparently to protect her.

    “In a few seconds, tens of hands were all over my body, under my clothes, ripping … off my clothes and violating each inch of my body,” she said.

    The men were “continuously giving the impression that they were helping out while they were the same perpetrators and attackers,” she added.

    They dragged her to the outer edges of the square where another group of men came forward, saying they would help and take her to an ambulance, Moheeb said. But they stopped her as she tried to pull her clothes back on, carrying her half-naked to the ambulance.

    “What I know for a fact is that my body was being violated up until the last second before I was put in the ambulance,” she said.

    Over the days following her attack, Moheeb heard from other women who were also assaulted on the same night, at the same place and in the same way – using the same techniques down to the very last detail.

    Some activists believe it is an organized tactic aimed at silencing opponents of the Egyptian government, but there has been no evidence to prove that is the case, Moheeb said. No single group has been charged in connection with the assaults as of yet.

    Nonetheless, Moheeb fears there will be retribution for her telling her story and worries for her husband and parents. Although she is pursuing justice through the courts, she says she holds out very little hope that anything will be done.

    “The justice I need,” Moheeb said, “is the justice [for] the Egyptian people. The success of the revolution will be success for them.”

    Related:

    Violence, protesters return to Tahrir Square

    Egypt branded more dangerous for tourists than Yemen

    Sex mobs target Egypt's women

  • 'We are watching everybody': Syria's rebels form own secret police

    By Mariam Karouny, Reuters

    BEIRUT -- Just the mention of the word would send shivers down the spine of Syrians: "mukhabarat," or secret police.

    Abuses by President Bashar Assad's feared security units were among the reasons Syrians took to the streets in March 2011, leading to an uprising that has become a civil war.

    But now some of the rebels fighting Assad say they have set up a mukhabarat of their own to "protect the revolution," monitor sensitive military sites and gather military information to help rebels plan attacks against government forces.

    Amateur video posted on a social media website shows rebel forces in Syria taking over a military airport in Idlib, Syria. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    "We formally formed the unit in November. It provides all kind of information to (opposition) politicians and fighters. We are independent and just serve the revolution," said a rebel intelligence officer who goes under the name Haji.

    Rebel commanders had put Reuters in touch with Haji, who is based in Syria, via Skype on condition he not be identified.

    Haji said most of the rebel mukhabarat's members were army defectors and former intelligence officers, and that the information they gathered was distributed to all anti-Assad factions and rebel brigades without discrimination.

    However, the organization appears to operate independently from the main opposition Syrian National Coalition and the Free Syrian Army, effectively answering to itself.

    The new rebel body has operated secretly for months, Haji said, helping fighters carry out attacks on government targets.
    Haji declined to disclose details of the rebel agency, but said it operated across Syria, including in Aleppo and Idlib in the north, Deir al-Zor in the east and the capital Damascus, adding: "We have our spies among the regime who are providing us with information that we need, including military information."

    Syrians have long exchanged horror stories of the dungeons of the intelligence branches where dissidents were incarcerated, often tortured and sometimes killed. Opposition activists insist their own mukhabarat will be nothing like those Assad inherited from his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad.

    "The word security should mean the security of the people," said an opposition activist using the name Abu Hisham in Aleppo.

    'Nothing will be ignored'
    In the Arab world's many past or present police states, Syria's mukhabarat has had a reputation as one of the most ruthless. It consists of at least five powerful agencies which spy on each other, tap phones of dissidents and vie for power.

    Corruption, personal interests and a lack of communication among its branches might appear to offer avenues for rebels to infiltrate Assad's mukhabarat, but the security services are dominated by the Syrian leader's tight-knit Alawite minority.

    The Alawites, who make up about 12 percent of Syria's 23 million people, have rallied behind Assad, fearing revenge by the mostly Sunni Muslim rebels if he is toppled.

    Other minorities, which include Druze, Christians and Shiites, fear for their freedoms if the armed revolt brings Sunni Islamist hardliners to power.


    Such fears deepened after documented abuses by some rebels accused of torturing and summarily executing their opponents, as well as of looting state and private property during nearly 22 months of conflict that has cost at least 60,000 lives.

    Haji said his intelligence agents were documenting such violations so that the perpetrators could be held to account.

    "We are watching everybody. We have gathered information about every violation that happened in the revolt," he said.

    "Those we cannot punish now will be punished after toppling Assad. Nothing will be ignored. We have our members among all the working brigades. They are not known to be intelligence and they operate quietly."

    His agents, Haji said, worked undercover as activists, citizen journalists or fighters.

    While welcoming the formation of the rebel intelligence service, one insurgent commander voiced concern it might change its agenda to serve a group or a political party later on, just as Assad's mukhabarat had focused on protecting his rule.

    "After toppling Assad all of this will be reshaped -- it is a temporary unit but there is fear that this unit will remain secretive the way it is now and starts executing unwanted agendas," said the commander, known as Obeida.

    "We fear that later it will become political and serve a political agenda as if all our sacrifices never happened."

    Related stories:
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    Richard Engel and NBC News team freed from captors in Syria
    PhotoBlog: Destruction and resistance: Window into war-torn Aleppo

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Thousands chant 'revolution' in rare protest against Jordan's king

    Muhammad Hamed / Reuters

    Jordanian gendarmerie police stand guard to separate pro-government supporters from anti-government protesters Tuesday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Demonstrations and calls for general strikes hit key U.S. ally Jordan after the country’s prime minister added to the country’s economic problems by announcing price hikes for gas and other fuel.


    Abdullah Ensour's announcement on state television Tuesday cited a need to offset $5 billion in state losses by increasing fuel costs.

    It sparked protests in the capital, Amman, and at least 12 other cities across Jordan.

    The protesters, spanning an array of different political groups, also targeted King Abdullah II -- a rare public display against the monarch.

    Criticizing the king in public is forbidden in Jordan and is punishable by up to three years in jail.

    "Revolution, revolution, it is a popular revolution," chanted about 2,000 in an impromptu demonstration at a main Amman square, housing the Interior Ministry and other vital government departments.

    "Freedom is from God, in spite of you, Abdullah," they shouted.

    Muhammad Hamed / Reuters

    Protesters rally Tuesday following an announcement that Jordan would raise fuel prices.

    Tough test for regime
    Cars jammed gas stations to stock up on fuel before the price hike takes effect on Wednesday.

    The protests looked set to escalate toward the end of the week, setting a tough test for Jordan’s regime, although military suppression tactics - commonly used in Egypt and elsewhere – are highly unusual.

    The country has traditionally been one of the most stable in the Middle East, despite its position at the fulcrum of the region’s deepest conflicts in recent years. Its longest border, with Israel, has been peaceful since a 1993 treaty.

    Radical cleric linked to al-Qaida set free after UK court ruling

    Although a relatively wealthy country, Jordan lacks natural resources and has been stretched economically by decades of refugees from neighboring conflicts, who have pushed up demand for real estate and commodities.

    Ensour, the prime minister, said a type of fuel used in public transport will rise in price by 14 percent, while kerosene oil used for household heating will go up by 28 percent.

    Cooking gas will jump 54 percent, he said. Many low-income Jordanians use the gas for heating.

    Pipeline repeatedly blown up
    Disruptions in cheap Egyptian gas shipments cost Jordan an extra $7 million a day, the government said, pushing the budget deficit to a record high of nearly $3 billion this year.

    The pipeline that carries Egyptian natural gas to Israel and Jordan has been blown up more than a dozen times over the past year by militants in Egypt's Sinai desert, halting shipments. Jordan has switched to the more expensive fuel oil to generate electricity.

    Jordan foils plot to bomb Western targets, arrests 11

    In some cities in Jordan's south, inhabited by tribal Bedouins who are traditional supporters of the king, hundreds of protesters took to the streets to chant slogans calling for the ouster of the prime minister, but also criticizing the king.

    In Mazar, dozens of protesters burned down the main court building after stealing documents, said Yazan Naanah, a resident who said he saw the arson but did not take part in the protest.

    Further south in Maan, a hotbed for Jordanian Muslim militants, 500 protesters blocked the streets, burning tires and throwing stones at riot police, who were firing tear gas, a city official said, insisting on anonymity because he is not allowed to make press statements. He said there were no immediate reports of injuries.

    NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • 'Erasing history': Egyptians bristle after graffiti murals painted over

    Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

    A man redraws the graffiti along Mohamed Mahmoud street, a day after the walls were believed to be painted by government workers to cover former graffiti, in downtown Cairo on Wednesday.

    By The Associated Press

    Under cover of darkness, a few municipality workers quietly began to paint over an icon of Egypt's revolution: a giant, elaborate public mural on the street that saw some of the most violent clashes between protesters and police over the past two years.

    The mural, stretching three blocks along a wall off Cairo's Tahrir Square, has been a sort of open-air museum of the history of the revolution and its goals — with "martyr" portraits of slain protesters, graffiti, jokes, freedom slogans and pharaonic, Muslim, Christian and nationalist images to show Egypt's mixed heritage and a history of struggle.

    Analysis: 'Manufactured outrage' behind Middle East protests

    Word of the whitewash quickly got out. A number of progressive, young revolutionaries showed up to defend the murals. In the dead of night, they began to film the workers as they painted under the guard of police, hoping to embarrass them. They talked with the painters about what the murals meant.


    The scene on Mohammed Mahmoud Street in the early hours Wednesday was a small but telling counterpoint to last week's angry protests at the U.S. Embassy, led by ultraconservative Islamists protesting an anti-Islam film. Those protests took place only a few blocks away on another street off Tahrir.

    Together, the scenes point to the competition over the identity of the new Egypt, over what the country stands for now and what can be expressed.

    PhotoBlog: Graffiti artists target whitewashed walls and the president

    The mix of largely secular activists who launched the revolt against longtime leader Hosni Mubarak last year say the "revolution" is still continuing, until the country breaks with its authoritarian past and brings freedom and economic justice.

    The Islamists, who rode to power after Mubarak's ouster, have their own vision for Egypt, which they say should adhere to an "Islamic identity" as they define it and preserve traditions.

    'Erasing history'
    The government says it has launched a campaign to beautify Tahrir Square, the center of anti-Mubarak protests. But activists saw it as a government attempt to blot out the calls for continued revolution and to assert that a new and stable system is now in place, under elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

    "They are erasing history," Gamal Abdel-Nasser, the father of a 19-year old killed during the early days of anti-Mubarak protests, said as he stood at the mural street. "This is not my government. It doesn't represent me."

    Slideshow: Anger over film spreads throughout Muslim world

    Akhtar Soomro / Reuters

    Protests ignited by a controversial film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad spread throughout Muslim world.

    Launch slideshow

    And for some, repainting the wall just underlined the feeling that the Islamists have snatched the prizes of the revolution.

    "This is not about the wall. It is about everything happening in Egypt," said Nazly Hussein, one of the first to arrive at the scene to protest the paint job with a camera, live streaming the workers as they covered murals. "It is about territory they took away from us."

    The anti-film protests, she said, showed how under Morsi's three-month-old rule progressives were still having to fight for basic issues like freedom of expression. She pointed to government crackdowns on strikes and the recent sentencing of a Coptic Christian to six years in prison for insulting the Prophet Muhammad and Morsi. Still unaddressed are bigger goals of the revolution.

    "This is about lowering our ceiling. Our real battle is about freedom. Now we are fighting about the right to insult the president or not," she said. "All those on the wall died for bread, freedom and social justice," she said, referring to the martyr portraits.

    Egypt issues arrest warrants for Terry Jones, Coptic Christians over anti-Islam video

    After the intervention by activists, the municipal workers stopped the whitewashing at daybreak with only half the mural painted over. Graffiti artists moved in to start putting new images on the now white walls. By late Wednesday night, the municipal workers hadn't returned to finish their job, amid a media uproar over the mural erasure.

    The first drawing to go up was a portrait of a young man sticking his green tongue as a taunt. "Do it again! Erase, you cowardly regime," was written beneath it.

    'A worse dictatorship'?
    Graffiti artist Ahmed Nadi painted a new caricature of Morsi, smiling smugly, with the words, "Happy now, Morsi?"

    Ali Saleh, a 53-year old security guard at a nearby school, said the murals must stay as a reminder to authorities of the mistakes they committed.

    "If we give up the graffiti, this would be the first nail in the coffin," he said. "We are in for a worse dictatorship than Mubarak's."

    The sense of progressives that the wall is their territory is deepened by its location. Mohammed Mahmoud Street saw dozens killed late last year and early this year as security forces repeatedly tried to crush youth protesting against police brutality and the military rule that followed Mubarak's fall. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists refused to join the protests.

    How rap music fueled the Arab Spring

    Several of the activists accused the government and other Islamists of focusing on anger over the film to distract from the lack of real change since Egypt's first free election over the summer brought Morsi to power.

    "Is this what will take Egypt forward now? Erasing the graffiti?" a school student in his teens shouted as the artists began to refill the wall with images.

    "So long as we can't talk freely in this country, we still need walls to paint and songs to write," said Amr, an 18-year old commerce university student, refusing to give his last name because of security officers who remained nearby. "We are trying to be free. They don't want us to go down this road. They don't want a thinking people."

    'Can't have a revolution every day'
    Many Egyptians, however, say they just want stability after more than 20 months of turmoil. Some residents of the Mohammed Mahmoud area were happy to see the murals go, ending a reminder of the battles on their doorstep.

    "This is ugly," said Nour Nagati, referring to the graffiti of a man with his tongue out. "Paint me a flower, paint me a tree. This is a symbol of stability. But this provocation will only perpetuate provocation."

    Hip hop has inspired freedom fighters and pro-democracy protesters from Tunisia to Bahrain. NBC News' Karl Bostic investigates.

    Another resident in the area, who says he lived in Germany for 20 years and is an agricultural engineer, objected to the new graffiti artists over the words "cowardly regime" they had just scrawled on the wall.

    "Why should I wake up and find this profanity scribbled on the walls. I am Egyptian. This is not my culture. This is only for the Westerners," said the man, who wore the small beard of a conservative Muslim. He refused to give his name.

    But the lines are not black and white in Egypt: Age can be as much a factor as ideology. A younger man in his 30s with the even longer beard of an ultraconservative Islamist interjected and defended the murals.

    "Why the distinction between West and East when it comes to freedom of expression? There is no doubt that whoever represses and breaks up protests is a coward."

    The engineer looked at him in surprise, thrown by the idea of an ultraconservative defending graffiti.

    "You're mixing everything up!" he cried.

    Abdel-Karim Abu Bakr, a passer-by, said the time for using the walls for protest was over.

    "We had a revolution, we changed the regime. Let's calm down ... We can't have a revolution every day."

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  • NBC News: Egypt's ex-dictator Hosni Mubarak slips into coma

    Slideshow: Hosni Mubarak

    Philippe Bouchon / AFP - Getty Images

    The President of Egypt for nearly 30 years, Mubarak was an advocate for peace in the Middle East and a major U.S. ally, but Egyptians eventually grew tired of his corrupt regime and he was ousted in a popular revolt in February 2011.

    Launch slideshow

    By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

    Egypt's deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak was in a coma on Monday, eight days after having been sent to prison to start a life sentence, NBC News reported. 

    Mubarak, who is incarcerated at Torah prison hospital, had been on a respirator since Sunday and on a machine to regulate his heartbeat, his lawyer told NBC News.

    Doctors had to use a defibrillator twice on 84-year-old Mubarak, according to the officials. They did not say whether Mubarak's heart had stopped or he suffered from irregular heartbeats. But they said that Mubarak has slipped in and out of consciousness three times so far on Monday. He was also reported to be slipping in and out of consciousness on Sunday.

    Mubarak's two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa, were by his side, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The two sons are being held at Torah prison awaiting trial on insider trading charges.

    With anger growing in Egypt over the  Mubarak verdict, protestors returned to Tahrir Square to demand justice for those who died in Egypt's revolution. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    According to Egyptian officials, Mubarak's health has deteriorated sharply since he was convicted on June of failing to prevent the killings of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that ousted him last year. They have also said he is suffering from deep depression.

    He and his two sons were acquitted of corruption charges.

    Mubarak's wife Suzanne and the wives of his two sons also visited the ex-president on Sunday, the state news agency reported, quashing rumors that had briefly swirled suggesting the former president had died.

    In 'new Egypt,' mobs target women with impunity

    Officials said that family members demanded that Mubarak be transferred to a better-equipped hospital outside the penal system. The officials said such a transfer was likely unless Mubarak's health improves.

    About 200 supporters of Mubarak also protested outside Tora prison on Saturday demanding he be moved to a hospital outside prison. 
     

    Protesters fill Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday after Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison. Many of the protesters are reportedly angry that members of Mubarak's family and staff were not sentenced to prison as well. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    In his last public appearance at his sentencing on June 2, the bedridden Mubarak sat stoned-faced in the metal defendants' cage in the courtroom, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses. However, officials said that he broke into tears when he learned that he was being transferred to a prison. It took officials hours to convince Mubarak to leave the helicopter that ferried him from the courthouse to the prison.

    Media reports quoted Mubarak at the time as saying the military council who took over after his ouster had deceived him. "Egypt has sold me. They want me to die here," he reportedly said.  

    NBC News' Charlene Gubash, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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  • In Egypt, chaos is pinned on military's incompetence

    Str / AP

    Protesters clash with Egyptian military outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday, May 2, 2012.

    By Ayman Mohyeldin , NBC News correspondent

    News Analysis

    With three weeks before presidential elections and less than 60 days before a new civilian president is sworn into office, Egypt is once again witnessing a round of violence that critics and activists say has become emblematic of the country's chaotic transition.

    The latest flare-up came on Wednesday when armed supporters of Egypt's military rulers – many believed be hired thugs – attacked predominantly Islamist anti-government protesters outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo, setting off clashes that left 11 dead.
     
    But Wednesday's clashes should not be dismissed as merely a conflagration of violence between rival political groupings. It has a deeper meaning – a deep mistrust between citizens and the military that continues to grow and jeopardize the country’s future.

    Military mismanagement
    The frustrations many Egyptians have with the military stem from its failure to chart a transparent and civilian-led transition to democracy. Instead, since former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in February 2011, the military has tried to play the role of steward, guardian and, at times, driver of the revolution much to the dismay of the country's revolutionary youth.


    PHOTO BLOG: Several dead in Cairo as protesters attacked

    The military's shortcomings have been coupled with its mismanagement of the country's day-to-day affairs through successive military-appointed civilian cabinets which hold very little power and even less credibility. The result is that few in Egypt can say the quality of their life has improved in the transition period.

    Meanwhile, Egypt's parliament has yet to find itself as the people's voice. A committee tasked with writing a new constitution is in disarray. The powerful Presidential Elections Commission has been operating, at best, in a questionable manner with how it manages the upcoming presidential race. And Egypt's judiciary continues to struggle in asserting itself over the legality of the state’s actions and the military's decisions.

    However, Wednesday's violence has shifted the attention away from these issues and the candidates and refocused it on the military's mismanagement.

    Presidential hopefuls have suspended campaign activities; effectively curbing their time spent selling voters on their ideas and vision for the country's future.

    Even Egypt's first presidential debate, which was scheduled to be televised nationwide Thursday, has been delayed, and could potentially be cancelled. The debate would be a first in the Arab world.

    ‘Two steps forward, one step back’
    Such developments bolster the characterization of Egypt's transition as "two steps forward, one step back.” Every time there is a silver lining that gets people hopeful about a new Egypt, they are almost immediately undermined by either a deliberate or unintentional miscalculation by the ruling military council.

    And the increasing fear among Egyptians is that the military may ruin what is left of an already deficient process on its way out of power. That’s why the next 60 days are critical in Egypt and must be watched ever so closely.
     

  • Egyptian women march on frontlines of country's revolution

    Thousands of Egyptian women marched across Tahrir Square Tuesday, calling on their countrymen to join them and demand an end to the abuse of women demonstrators. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Cairo.

    By Ayman Mohyeldin , NBC News correspondent

    The plight of women in Egyptian society has been well documented over the years. From enduring daily sexual harassment to being marginalized from politics … being a woman in Egypt has been and is tough.

    But there was something about the video of soldiers stripping and dragging women in the street and ferociously attacking them that has triggered public outrage here. Even as their bodies lay motionless on the concrete, the soldiers repeatedly beat them over and over …

    On Tuesday, Egyptian women fought back and by doing so, pro-democracy activists say, they lifted the spirit of their cause and their country.

    Thousands of women took to the streets of downtown Cairo, walking on the same Tahrir streets where days earlier they had been beaten, arrested and dragged.

    PhotoBlog: Egyptians rally to protest treatment of women 

    They wore black and held signs that read “mourning.” They were protesting abuse by soldiers, not just over the past few days but over the past several months, which included alleged “virginity tests” against female detainees, sexual intimidation and harassment.

    The women were from all walks of life. Young and old, Muslim and Christian, rich and poor walked shoulder to shoulder.

    Niveen Redha, an Egyptian woman living in Canada and visiting Egypt, joined the march to denounce the military crackdown on protesters and women over the past few weeks.

    Others called on people watching the march wind through the streets to join them, shouting, “It could be your sisters and mothers that will be attacked next.”

    'True protectors'
    As the women marched around central Cairo, men formed a human chain around them, making sure no one could disrupt their march.

    On more than one occasion men came up to me and said of the obviously peaceful protesters, “look at these thugs” -- a sarcastic rebuke to the ruling military council, which has tried to paint the pro-democracy protesters as lawless thugs.

    One man said the “noble women of Egypt are the true protectors of the revolution” and called on the men of Egypt to “shave their mustaches” – telling someone to shave his mustache is often considered an insult in this patriarchal society.

    Images of a veiled woman being beaten and stripped on the street, exposing her upper body down to her bra, have fueled the determination of pro-democracy activists calling on the military council to hand power immediately to a civilian government. The video and the images from Saturday’s crackdown have drawn strong condemnation from the UN and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

    "This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonors the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform, and is not worthy of a great people," she said Monday.

    Sexual threats
    Ghada Kamal was one of the women assaulted on Friday. For three weeks she was part of an “Occupy Cabinet” protest outside the prime minister’s office. The protesters there wanted to prevent the military-appointed prime minister from entering his office. On Friday, the military entered the encampment and attempted to break up the protest.

    The 28-year-old pharmacist was dragged away by soldiers who kicked her in the face, groped her and clubbed her head with a baton. While she was in military custody, she said, a soldier taunted her by saying, “We will have a party with you today and show you how much of a man I am.”

    Such accounts are common among women who are detained by the military. Human rights organizations also have documented cases of women being given forced virginity tests.

    In the face of mounting domestic and international criticism, the military said in a statement Tuesday on the Supreme Council of Armed Forces Facebook page that it apologizes to the women of Egypt and said it had the deepest respect for them and their right to protest and to participate in political life during Egypt's transition to democracy. It added that the military would investigate and hold to account all of those responsible for these violations.

    The recent military crackdown has united Egypt’s political forces in demanding a quick transfer of power to a civilian government. The closest thing to a civilian government taking shape in Egypt is the lower house of parliament. Two-thirds of that body has been elected, and the final round of elections is expected in early 2012.

    But the military says that until then, it has no plans to concede power.

    When Egypt's uprising began 10 months, pro-democracy activists trusted the military would protect the revolution. Now that trust is all but gone.