3 die in furor over soccer riot

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– Associated Press

CAIRO – Police in Cairo fired salvos of tear gas and birdshot at protesters angry over a deadly soccer riot as fresh clashes on Egyptian streets killed three people Friday, according to a volunteer doctor and health officials.

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 on 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 to surrender power because of what they say is the army’s mismanagement of the country’s transition to democracy. More rallies were planned Friday.

A volunteer doctor said the man in Cairo died of wounds from birdshot fired at close range during clashes at dawn Friday. The doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals by the authorities, said his field hospital close to Cairo’s Tahrir Square was overwhelmed with the wounded overnight.

Earlier Friday, two protesters died by police gunfire in clashes with security forces in Suez, said health official Mohammed Lasheen. 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.

Suez city security chief denied the deaths there were from police gunfire.

In Cairo, rallies spiraled into violent clashes between 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.

Many in the public and in the newly elected parliament blamed the new leadership for letting the soccer riot happen – whether through a lack of control by the security forces, or as some allege, intentionally.