CNN’s Anderson Cooper Leaves Egypt With ‘A Heavy Heart’

Amidst violent political unrest, CNN’s Anderson Cooper has decided to leave Egypt.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to leave Egypt,” the “Anderson Cooper 360” anchor Tweeted on Saturday. “CNN continues to have many teams in place.

“It was a hard decision to leave,” he added.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Cooper was among a number of journalists who were roughed up on Wednesday by supporters of President Hosni Mubarak as they covered the political unrest in Cairo.

As violence against journalists continued in Egypt on Thursday, CBS’ Katie Couric and NBC’s Brian Williams left the country, while Anderson stayed and reported from an undisclosed location after his car was attacked.

“Thank u everyone for your concerns! I just landed at JFK..may go back, but for now very happy to be home,” Katie Tweeted on Thursday night. “Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone! It is pretty scary and unruly out there, but we’re being very cautious.”

NBC’s Brian Williams also exited the violence-ravaged country and will instead broadcast “NBC Nightly News” from Amman, Jordan.

On Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists told Access Hollywood that in the last 24 hours, 30 journalists had been detained, while 26 were assaulted. There have also been eight incidents in which journalists’ equipment was either damaged or seized.