Cairo clashes leave 12 dead

Protesters and riot police fought pitched battles in Cairo yesterday as clashes sparked by the failure of Egypt's military rulers to prevent deadly football-linked violence raged into a fourth day.

Hundreds of riot police blocked off roads leading to the interior ministry headquarters in the centre of the capital, firing tear gas to keep dozens of rock throwing protesters at bay.

Police erected a concrete-block wall on Mansur Street, which has become the nerve centre of the deadly clashes, while entrenching themselves behind coils of barbed wire on other roads.

Protesters lobbing stones and petrol bombs at the police cheered when their comrades brought back a captive they said was a plainclothes officer. Others tried to shield him from kicks and punches.

Protesters denied they intended to storm the interior ministry, several hundred metres from Tahrir Square, centre of the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak a year ago but left the military in charge.

"My heart burned at what happened in Port Said, and we all know that the police are responsible," said one of the protesters, a student.

The health ministry on Saturday said 12 people had been killed in Cairo and the town of Suez since violence erupted on Thursday in response to the failure of the authorities to contain clashes at a football match in the northern city of Port Said that left 74 people dead.

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

The Ultras played a prominent role in the uprising that overthrew Mubarak, and there is speculation that pro-Mubarak forces were behind the rioting and deaths.

The military has pledged to cede power to civilians when a president is elected by June, but its opponents believe it intends to hold on to power behind the scenes.