CAIRO: At least two were killed in Cairo as clashes continued between protesters and Central Security Forces (CSF) near the Ministry of Interior (MOI) on Friday following an organized assault in Port Said that left 74 soccer fans dead.
As thousands flocked in marches to Tahrir Square and the Ministry of Defense in East Cairo on what was dubbed as the “Friday of the Martyr”, excessive teargas and birdshot targeted protesters outside the ministry in Downtown Cairo. A rally of rock throwing led to hundreds of injuries on Mansour Street, the front line of Friday’s confrontations.
Protesters stressed that they weren’t trying to break into the ministry, but were protesting against its rampant corruption which has not changed since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.
"The Ministry of Interior is the one responsible for the deaths that occurred in Port Said, that’s why we’re protesting here," Ahmed, 19, told Daily News Egypt, referring to the Port Said stadium massacre in which police was blamed for both inaction and complicity.
"The CFS are the ones who started firing excessive teargas on us first, when all we were doing was chanting against them," he added, describing how the clashes started on Thursday night.
Football fans of Port Said’s Al-Masry attacked Ahly fans on Wednesday in what was labeled by many, including the parliament speaker, as a "massacre."
The Prosecutor General said Port Said governor and security director, the head of the Football Federation, the head of Port Said Stadium and other security officials were banned from travel pending investigation into Wednesday’s violence, while 52 suspects were arrested. However, MPs and a state-media report said young men were randomly arrested in the coastal city long after the game ended.
Protesters remained in the streets leading to the MOI chanting against the police and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) since Thursday afternoon. At least one was killed in the clashes in Cairo and two in Suez.
One man was killed in Cairo after being hit by birdshot at close range, a volunteer doctor said on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals by the authorities.
He said four protesters lost an eye, and that his field hospital close to Tahrir Square was overwhelmed with the wounded overnight. Others put the number of protesters with eye injuries at 20.
The Ministry of Health said on Friday afternoon that 1,482 were injured in Cairo and 207 in Suez, according to the official news agency.
Two hundred and eleven CFS officers were injured, including 16 injured with pellets, according to a statement issued by MOI on Friday.
One army officer was killed, when a CFS truck backed up and crushed him outside the MOI headquarters.
The MOI claimed that protesters broke into the nearby Real Estate Tax Authority headquarters early Friday and threw furniture and Molotov cocktails from the top of the building on security forces.
CFS exercised extreme self-restraint in response to the incident and only fired teargas after warning protesters to stay away from the MOI headquarters, according to the statement.
Protesters refuted the statement, saying that a building near the MOI was set on fire because one of the tear gas canisters hit a pile of papers in it and the youth tried to put out the fire, despite being attacked by CSF. Pictures showed protesters climbing the building to put out the fire.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a statement on Friday evening calling on the Egyptian people to unite against attempts to cause strife and escalation from "foreign parties and other internal ones that target the country with all its sects, properties and achievements."
The statement called on all political powers to swiftly intervene to reach stability and protect the "country’s institutions", and prevent “malicious elements” from causing more casualties either in lives or private and public property.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, announced late Friday that two MPs were going to meet the minister of interior in a bid to end the ongoing clashes.
Ahly’s soccer fan club Ultras Ahlawy issued a statement on Thursday denying that they were involved in the protests that took place outside MOI, adding that they were burying their friends.
However, protesters in Tahrir Square maintained that some members of Ultras Ahlawy came to Tahrir and rallied them to head to the MOI to call for the rights of their friends and families who died in Port Said.
"One of my friends died in the football match," said Mohamed Zanaty, 20. "My other friend who made it back alive said that the CSF opened the gates to allow the attackers through."
Ahmed Abdallah, 45, said that CSF don’t hesitate to attack protesters, while they allow thugs and murderers to go unpunished.
Many protesters believed that the attack was organized by remnants of the former corrupt regime to cause chaos and punish the Ultras who backed the 18-day revolt which toppled Mubarak.
The protesters managed to bring down a concrete wall set up by security forces during Mohamed Mahmoud clashes which took place in November, leaving 45 dead and thousands injured.
Protesters said that CSF targeted the protesters’ eyes and heads, like they did in the November clashes. Many protesters suffered from convulsions and choked as a result of the gas inhalation.
"They threw teargas at us during Friday prayers," Mohamed Ahmed, 28, said.
Ahmed’s cousin got 35 stitches in his stomach after being stabbed by an angry mob during the clashes in Port Said.
A few thousand protesters gathered in the safety of Tahrir Square, whose relative calm was only interrupted by the ferrying of the injured.
The imam of the Omar Makram Mosque Mazhar Shahine called on the protesters in his Friday sermon to retreat from the MOI and go back to the "peaceful protests" in Tahrir Square and called on CFS officers to stop firing tear gas bombs and birdshot to prevent further bloodshed.
"We’ll never stop demanding that those responsible for killing the martyrs be prosecuted through revolutionary trials," Shahine said.
He said that along with a group of prominent figures including Judge Zakaria Abdel Aziz, he tried but failed to negotiate a truce between the protesters and CSF soldiers.
He held SCAF responsible for the death of the martyrs as they are the de facto rulers. He added that the attack was premeditated to start a civil war.
Hundreds of protesters voiced Shahine’s concerns, chanting to those in Mohamed Mahmoud Street to return to the Square to avoid more bloodshed. "The revolution is in Tahrir Square," they said.
Others in Tahrir defended the protesters outside MOI, saying they were outraged by the death of more and more Egyptians.
"Their brothers died in the Port Said clashes in front of their eyes, and they have every right to be outraged," said Hala Mohamed, 40, who came to Tahrir with a march from the High Court.
"At the same time I don’t want more of our youth to die in any further clashes," she added.
Several marches poured into the square including a march from Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque in Mohandiseen and El-Estiqama Mosque in Giza.
During the Friday sermon, Sheikh Almansy, in Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque, said that "the match incident isn’t a coincidence but a plan by the Egyptian revolution’s enemies aiming to initiate a civil war.”
He tried to dissuade worshipers from participating in marches to the MOI, claiming that the MPs will achieve the protesters’ demands.
The number of protesters increased gradually reaching thousands as the march approached Tahrir. They chanted “Down with military rule,” “This is not a sports accident, it’s a military massacre.”
“No one is being held responsible for Wednesday’s massacre and the parliament isn’t doing anything” said Noura Wahby, a Master’s student.
Another small group of protesters marched towards the Ministry of Defense where they chanted against SCAF. They stood in a peaceful protest in front of barricades blocking the path to the ministry.
Award-winning activist Asmaa Mahfouz said on her twitter account that mothers and their daughters joined the march. –Additional Reporting by Ahmed Hazem.
