Nation & World

CAIRO — Egyptian security forces on Saturday fired tear gas from armored trucks at protesters demanding an end to military rule, as anger over a deadly soccer riot fueled a third day of clashes that have killed at least 12 people.

The violence followed a melee and stampede after a soccer match Wednesday in the Mediterranean city of Port Said in which 74 people died in the world's worst soccer violence in 15 years. Protesters accuse the security forces of failing to prevent the bloodshed.

After two days of running street battles, clashes broke out again in downtown Cairo Saturday as protesters marched on the Interior Ministry. Security forces fired volleys of tear gas at rock-throwing protesters calling for the army to relinquish power and the execution of Egypt's military ruler.

The ministry has been a frequent target for the protesters because it is responsible for the widely distrusted police.

In Parliament, lawmakers on the national security committee held an emergency meeting to discuss the latest bout of violence, and proposed rebuilding a concrete wall in front of the Interior Ministry to prevent protesters from reaching the building, the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

Outcry over plan

It said the committee also recommended asking Parliament to authorize "shooting anyone who tries to encroach the wall." The proposal, which has not been approved yet, immediately sparked an outcry among demonstrators and activists.

Rights groups and several newly elected members of Parliament have called on the country's military leader, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who served as President Hosni Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years and took power after Mubarak's ouster last February, to immediately transfer power to a civilian administration. Some are also calling on presidential elections to be held in April rather than June.

Some protesters Saturday urged for an end to the violence and called on people to leave the Interior Ministry area.

"If you love Egypt, return to the (Tahrir) square," chanted protesters along the side streets of the ministry on Saturday.

Police then cordoned off several streets with lines of riot police and barbed wire, pushing protesters further back from the building's headquarters.

In the port city of Suez, protesters set up cordons outside the police headquarters to ban people from protesting around it and keep the calm after three days of violence there.

On Friday, security forces in Suez opened fire on a crowd of several thousand outside the police headquarters. A total of seven people were killed, a police official said Saturday. Egypt's state-news agency MENA reported the victims ranged in age between 18 and 21 years, and the most recent victim died of a gunshot wound that he sustained the previous day.

By early Saturday, five protesters were also reported dead in Cairo after security forces used tear gas to disperse thousands rallying outside the Interior Ministry the day before. The death toll came from a security official and a volunteer doctor.

The Health Ministry said Saturday that 2,500 people have been injured since the violence began Thursday.

Clinton warns

about U.S. aid

MUNICH — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday issued a new warning to Egypt that the failure to resolve a bitter dispute over the status of nongovernmental pro-democracy groups may lead to the loss of American aid to the country.

Clinton met Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr at an international security conference in Munich and repeated that message, which had already been transmitted to officials in Cairo. The U.S. is due to give Egypt $1.3 billion in military assistance and $250 million in economic aid in 2012.

Under U.S. law, Clinton must certify to Congress that Egypt is meeting certain requirements, including enacting democratic and rule of law reforms, for the assistance to be released.

The Associated Press