Police in Cairo set off salvos of tear gas and fired birdshot at protesters angry over a deadly soccer riot as fresh clashes on Egyptian streets killed three people Friday. One man died just feet away from the Interior Ministry, which has become a target for demonstrators furious that the police failed to prevent a soccer riot that killed 74 people in the Mediterranean city of Port Said Wednesday. It was the world's worst soccer violence in 15 years. Protesters angry over the deadly riot turned their rallies in Cairo and the city of Suez into a call for Egypt's ruling military council, led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, to surrender power because of what they say is the military's mismanagement of the country's transition to democracy. Police in the Egyptian canal city of Suez fired birdshot and tear gas to disperse angry protesters, after a night of violence that left two demonstrators dead. Ambulances ferried the injured out of Al-Arbaeen Square in the city center under a volley of rocks and stones, amid nationwide unrest. About 3,000 people had demonstrated in front of the city's police headquarters and police fired tear gas and live ammunition, witnesses said. A third protester in Suez was in critical condition because of a wound to the neck. Suez city security chief denied the deaths there were from police gunfire. In Cairo, protests spiraled into violent clashes between the protesters and police late Thursday as demonstrators charged toward the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police. Thousands threw rocks, and police responded with tear gas and birdshot. The clashes intensified overnight, with protesters pushing through the barricades erected around the fortress-like building and bringing down a wall of concrete blocks erected outside the ministry two months ago, after similar violence left more than 40 protesters dead.
