Egyptian army soldiers and military police secure a funeral procession for civilians killed overnight during street battles with police forces, in Port Said, Egypt, Monday, March 4, 2013. The fighting on Sunday prompted the military to intervene to break up the clashes, the first such intervention by the army since the military was deployed in Port Said in late January when tension between protesters and police first erupted. (AP Photo/Ahmed Ramadan)
Egyptian army soldiers and military police secure a funeral procession for civilians killed overnight during street battles with police forces, in Port Said, Egypt, Monday, March 4, 2013. The fighting on Sunday prompted the military to intervene to break up the clashes, the first such intervention by the army since the military was deployed in Port Said in late January when tension between protesters and police first erupted. (AP Photo/Ahmed Ramadan)
Thousands of residents join a funeral procession for civilians, killed overnight during street battles with security forces, in Port Said, Egypt, Monday, March 4, 2013. The fighting on Sunday prompted the military to intervene to break up the clashes, the first such intervention by the army since the military was deployed in Port Said in late January when tension between protesters and police first erupted. (AP Photo/Ahmed Ramadan)
Thousands of residents rally and chant "We want retribution," and "It is now war between us and you, Interior Ministry" during a funeral procession for civilians killed overnight during street battles with security forces, in Port Said, Egypt, Monday, March 4, 2013. The fighting on Sunday prompted the military to intervene to break up the clashes, the first such intervention by the army since the military was deployed in Port Said in late January when tension between protesters and police first erupted. (AP Photo/Ahmed Ramadan)
Egyptian army soldiers and military police secure a funeral procession for civilians killed overnight during street battles with police forces, in Port Said, Egypt, Monday, March 4, 2013. The fighting on Sunday prompted the military to intervene to break up the clashes, the first such intervention by the army since the military was deployed in Port Said in late January when tension between protesters and police first erupted. (AP Photo/Ahmed Ramadan)
FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 file photo, smoke rises after Egyptian protesters clash with police, unseen, in Port Said, Egypt. The military intervened in clashes between thousands of protesters and police in the restive Egyptian canal city of Port Said on Sunday, March 3, 2013, the latest in a cycle of violence that killed several security members and civilians, and which continues to rock Egypt two years after the uprising that ousted longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo, File)
PORT SAID, Egypt (AP) ? Parts of a government complex were set on fire as protesters throwing stones and firebombs clashed with police firing tear gas and birdshot Monday in a new day of clashes that have caught the military in the middle of fighting in the restive Egyptian city of Port Said.
The renewed clashes came hours after thousands of city residents rallied in a funeral procession for civilians killed during street battles with police a day earlier in which three policemen and three civilians were killed.
The two days of clashes have dragged in the military to a dramatic extent. Troops trying to break up fighting have been overwhelmed by police tear gas, one army colonel was wounded by live fire, and at some points troops have opened fire over the heads of police. The scenes have underlined a scenario that many in Egypt view with a mix of concern and relief ? that the military may move back into politics, prompted by mushrooming protests, a breakdown in law and order and mounting challenges to the Islamist president.
On Monday, the military deployed soldiers and cars to escort the funeral procession. "We want retribution," the marchers chanted. "It is now war between us and you, Interior Ministry." Protesters in the procession, carrying the coffins of the dead to the cemetery, waved the black-white-and-green flags of Port Said that have become a symbol of the city's revolt against the government.
Violence erupted when protesters on the way back from the funeral hurled rocks at the police headquarters, which lies in a government complex. Police responded with volleys of tear gas.
The military stood by as protesters and police exchanged projectiles, witnesses said. At one point, the military fired in the air to stop the violence. Flames were visible from the provincial government's headquarters and a nearby tax authority office, adjacent to the police building. Firefighters were unable to reach the blaze.
Amira el-Alfi, a 33-year-old resident of Port Said who watched as the building caught fire, said the scene was confusing.
"The government building is on fire. We don't know who is aiming at who. But young people end up dying," she said as she coughed from tear gas.
Medical officials said at least eight people were injured by birdshot.
The wrath among residents of Port Said is aimed at the police force, which many accuse of using excessive force that led to the killing of more than 40 civilians during protests in January. The city has seen the heaviest protests in a wave of unrest around the country in recent months. In at least two separate incidents in Cairo on Monday, protesters torched two police vehicles, setting them on fire and driving the policemen in the cars running in the middle of traffic on major thoroughfares.
Port Said, on the Mediterranean coast at the mouth of the Suez Canal, has been in turmoil since late January, when a Cairo court issued death sentences against 21 people, most residents of the city, for involvement in Egypt's deadliest soccer riot in February 2012. The verdicts sparked angry protests in the city, which turned into deadly clashes with police, leaving more than 40 dead, including two policemen.
Residents have been outraged by what they call excessive force by the police and by the central government's response ? Islamist President Mohammed Morsi called the protesters "thugs" and has generally backed the security forces. The police said most of the protester deaths came during an attempt to storm a prison.
Tensions have risen further ahead of a court hearing planned for Saturday that is expected to confirm the death sentences to issue new verdicts for police officers and other Port Said defendants also charged in connection with the soccer tragedy.
For nearly three weeks, the city has seen protests, strikes and work stoppages, including the blocking of a major port.
The fighting Sunday saw the most dramatic instance of the military being pulled into the middle of Egypt's escalating tensions.
Witnesses described a tense scene between the police and the military during the clashes. The fighting began when thousands of protesters marched on the police headquarters after word emerged that 39 defendants in the soccer violence case had been transferred to prisons outside the city. The move apparently aimed to ensure calm ahead of Saturday's hearing in the case.
The protesters Sunday lobbed rocks and firebombs at the police building. The police, heavily deployed around their building, moved out to try to push back the protesters.
Army officers tried but failed to negotiate an end to the fighting, then pulled back from between the two sides. Then the troops began getting hit. An army colonel, Sherif el-Arayishi, was shot in the right leg by live ammunition, military spokesman Ahmed Mohammed Ali said. Also, soldiers were overwhelmed by the tear gas that police were firing at the protesters. In one case, captured on video, a tear gas canister fell inside a military armored vehicle, and the choking soldiers stumbled out, helped by protesters who carried them to an ambulance.
Then the military moved back in, deploying their vehicles back in the crowds between the protesters and police. They fired in the air in the direction of the police, prompting cheers from the protesters, witnesses said. People chanted at one point: "The people and army are one hand."
"We had doubted the military, thought it was only there to protect installations. What they did yesterday restored our confidence," said one protester who had witnessed the scene, 25-year-old Mohammed Atef. "We felt they are feeling the injustices against us; that they decided to protect us too."
On Monday, both the military and the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the police, sought to dispel any sign of friction between their forces. The Interior Ministry issued a statement saying "unknown elements" fired arbitrarily at the police and military with the aim of sowing sedition and causing escalation.
In a statement late Sunday, the military denied it fired at police. Ali, the military spokesman, said the armed forces were protecting installations and separating protesters and the police. On Monday, Ali said that the fact that people on both sides were injured indicates that unknown elements were behind the gunfire.
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El Deeb contributed to this report from Cairo.
Associated Press
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