[ 2012-02-04 ]

Third day of Egypt clashes as death toll mounts
CAIRO (AFP) - Police fired tear gas and birdshot
at protesters on Saturday in the third day of
deadly clashes in Cairo, as anger at Egypt's
ruling military boiled over after 74 people died
in football-related violence.

The police responded after dozens of protesters
threw stones at officers guarding the interior
ministry headquarters hundreds of metres (yards)
from the capital's iconic Tahrir Square.

By noon, as some protesters tried to intervene
between their colleagues and the police, sporadic
stone throwing continued in central Cairo, which
the violence has turned into a rock-strewn
battlefield.

In the canal city of Suez, two people died in
clashes overnight from birdshot wounds, medics
said. Hospital officials said nine people have
been killed in Cairo and Suez since the violence
erupted.

Five people were also wounded in overnight clashes
outside police headquarters in the Mediterranean
city of Alexandria, state media reported.

Marchers had taken to the streets on Friday across
the country to demand that Egypt's ruling generals
cede power immediately after a night of violence
in several cities.

The health ministry said 2,532 people have been
injured in the violence, in a statement published
by the official MENA news agency on Saturday.

A reporter for the state-owned Nile News
television station was wounded in the eye by
birdshot, the channel reported.

The interior ministry said 211 policemen were
wounded in the violence, including a general who
lost an eye. It said 16 conscripts were wounded by
birdshot.

Protesters, many of them organised supporters of
Cairo's main football clubs known as the Ultras,
held up a huge banner to the police that read:
"Those who didn't deserve to die have died at the
hands of those who don't deserve to live."

Many of the dead in Wednesday's football riot in
the northern city of Port Said were thought to
have been Al-Ahly supporters, set upon by
partisans of the local Al-Masry side after the
Cairo team lost 3-1.

The Ultras played a prominent role among
anti-regime elements in the uprising that
overthrew president Hosni Mubarak a year ago, and
commentators and citizens have suggested
pro-Mubarak forces were behind the massacre, or at
least complicit.

In the ongoing aftermath, rocks and stones flew in
all directions on Friday as police vans in Cairo
repeatedly charged the demonstrators before
retreating.

At one point, police clubbed protesters just
metres away from the interior ministry.

Across the street, a building housing the Tax
Authority burned, state television reported.

A soldier injured outside the interior ministry on
Thursday died in hospital on Friday, MENA
reported.

In a sign of increased insecurity, gunmen carrying
automatic weapons stormed a police station in east
Cairo, freeing detainees before torching it.

And in the Dokki neighbourhood, a group of men
attacked a police station, taking weapons from the
building.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)
blamed the unrest on "foreign and domestic hands
targeting the country."

In a statement on Facebook, it urged "all
political and national forces of this great nation
to take a national and historic role and
intervene... to return stability."

Wednesday's clashes between fans of Port Said team
Al-Masry and Cairo's Al-Ahly marked one of the
deadliest incidents in football history, and came
amid claims by witnesses the security forces did
little to prevent the it.

After the final whistle, victorious Al-Masry fans
invaded the pitch, throwing rocks, bottles and
fireworks at Al-Ahly supporters, causing panic as
players and fans fled in all directions, witnesses
said.

On Friday, the prosecutor general slapped a travel
ban on the head of the Egyptian Football
Association Samir Zaher -- a day after he was
sacked -- and on ex-Port Said governor Mohammed
Abdullah, who resigned after the clashes.

"This happened under the military council whose
ouster the people are demanding, and who has
proved that it is a failure," he said.

Egyptians have become increasingly angry with the
junta, which they accuse of failing to manage the
country and of human rights abuses.

For months, they have taken to the streets to
demand the ouster of the SCAF and its chief, Field
Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who was Mubarak's defence
minister for two decades.

The SCAF has pledged to cede full powers to
civilian rule when a president is elected by the
end of June, but its opponents believe it intends
to hold on to power behind the scenes after a
transfer to civilian rule.

In the Sinai, the brief abduction on Friday of two
US tourists and their guide by masked gunmen dealt
a new blow to Egypt's already hard-hit tourism
sector, despite their release unharmed several
hours later.

The kidnappers intercepted their tour bus on its
way from the historic St Catherine's monastery to
the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, security
officials told AFP.

Source - AFP

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