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presstv
An Egyptian activist says several Egyptian army officers and soldiers have warned the military that they will no longer shoot protesters, instead they will shoot the commanders.

"I think some of them (the army personnel) might join protesters. We have heard some of the officers and soldiers saying if we receive an order to shoot people, we would shoot whoever issued the order," Wael Abbas, a member of the opposition Egypt Revolution Youth Movement, told Press TV in a phone interview on Thursday.

Egypt Revolution Youth Movement has been one of the active rights groups in 17 days of revolution which has rocked the North African country.

"I have no confirmation if the army is going to intervene in favor of the protesters or in favor of the regime," Abbas added.

Revolution has entered its 17th consecutive day in crisis-hit Egypt, despite massive crackdown on demonstrators in the past two days, which left more than a hundred people killed or wounded.

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters camped overnight in the streets in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, near parliament building, the site of a massive march on Wednesday.

The angry protesters blocked roads and railways connecting the northern part of the country to the south on Thursday.

Reports say the protesters set fire to tires placed across the main motorway that goes from Cairo to Assiut, 350 kilometers south of Cairo.

Around 8,000 protesters, mainly farmers, took to the streets in Assiut, and used wooden planks and bricks to block the railway line. More than 3,000 railway workers went on strike to put more pressure on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to resign.

Meanwhile, the army has been deployed in force in the capital Cairo. Security is reportedly tight in the streets leading to Nasr City and New Egypt districts.

Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, earlier revealed that the regime of the embattled Mubarak intends to crack down on Friday's "Day of Massive Protest March."

The Muslim Brotherhood says some 30,000 security forces will be deployed to prevent any pro-democracy protests in Cairo's Liberation Square.

The group added that it has called 800,000 of its members for the Friday demonstrations.

Egypt has been rocked by millions-strong nationwide protests against beleaguered Mubarak over the past 17 days. The protesters want Mubarak to step down.

Hundreds of protesters were killed and wounded in Kharga in southern Egypt, on Wednesday.