Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- The Egyptian defense ministry on Wednesday urged the youth to return home, saying "it is time to go back to normal life" as protesters gathered for a ninth day to demand the immediate departure of President Hosni Mubarak.
"Your message is received ... (your) demands became known. And we are here and awake to protect the country for you ... not by power but by the love to Egypt," a ministry spokesman said in a TV broadcast on state media. "It is time to go back to normal life".
The spokesman also said, "You have the power to allow Egypt to return to normal life. We are with you. We will continue to secure our country".
Crowds -- including families with young children -- formed in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday. Some have camped out at Tahrir -- which means "freedom" or "liberation" in Arabic -- for a week. But the crowd Wednesday was noticeably smaller than on Tuesday, when demonstrators held a "march of millions" event in the city. CNN
