LEAD: 12 killed in Egypt clashes in aftermath of football riots

Feb 4, 2012, 15:53 GMT

Cairo - Twelve people have died in three days of fighting between Egyptian police and protesters angered by the deaths of 74 people in the country's worst football rioting, state television reported Saturday.

Seven deaths took place near the Interior Ministry in central Cairo where sporadic clashes continued for the third consecutive day, reported state TV quoting Hesham Sheha, the undersecretary for the Health Ministry.

Sheha said 275 people were injured in Saturday's fighting, and that 50 of them were still in hospital being treated for fractures caused by birdshots.

Meanwhile, five people were killed in fighting between police and protesters in Suez City, 140 kilometres east of Cairo, the report said.

In the vicinity of the Interior Ministry near Tahrir Square, the epicentre of a popular revolt in 2011 against then president Hosny Mubarak, hundreds of civilians formed human shields between the police and protesters who repeatedly attempted to storm the ministry building, according to television reports.

A tentative truce followed sporadic clashes between the stone-throwing demonstrators and security personnel who fired tear gas, said witnesses. They said several nearby stores and parked cars were damaged.

Anti-government protesters and angry football fans, known as the Ultras, had rallied across Egypt, blaming the police and the military for the killings that followed a football match in the northern city of Port Said on Wednesday.

Activists are calling for collective acts of civil disobedience to pressure the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to speed up the handing over of power to civilians.

Some political activists proposed starting the civil disobedience on February 11, marking the day when Mubarak gave up power last year.

The council, which has been in charge since Mubarak was ousted, has said presidential polls will be held by mid-June.

Several political groups accuse the military of being behind the football riots and using that as an excuse to hold on to power.