20/11/2009 Protestors hurled stones and firebombs at police near the Algerian embassy in Cairo on Friday, wounding 11 officers as anger mounted over attacks on Egyptians after the countries' World Cup qualifier.
 
The interior ministry said 11 officers were hurt and 15 cars were damaged in the violence. The protest started on Thursday night on a street leading to the embassy, when riot police repeatedly turning back the demonstrators, who burned Algerian flags.
 
The demonstrators were enraged by reports of attacks against Egyptian fans in Khartoum on Wednesday after a World Cup qualification decider with Algeria, and demanded the expulsion of the Algerian ambassador. Egyptian fans told AFP that stones were thrown at their bus as they made their way back to Khartoum airport after the 1-0 defeat, which followed a 2-0 victory for the Pharoahs in Cairo on Saturday.
 
Egypt recalled its ambassador from Algeria on Thursday for consultations and summoned the Algerian envoy in Cairo to protest the attacks. It was the second summons in a week for Ambassador Abdelkader Hadjar, who was called to the foreign ministry last week after Algerian fans attacked Egyptian businesses and homes in Algiers.
 
Before the match in Cairo, several Algerian footballers were hurt after the team bus was stoned on the way from the airport to the team hotel. A similar fate befell some visiting supporters after Egypt won the game, which left the teams neck and neck in their qualifying group and triggered the replay in Khartoum.
 
People then took to the streets in Algiers, attacking 15 offices belonging to a local subsidiary of Egypt's Orascom Telecom and twice ransacking the Algiers offices of Egypt Air. The attacks prompted Orascom to pull out 25 Egyptian employees and their families.

Meanwhile, Arab League chief Amr Mussa on Friday called for calm in the row between Algeria and Egypt that has sparked clashes and a diplomatic spat. "I call for a return to calm and reason on the Arab street. The affair must be restored to its true proportions, after all the Egyptians like the Algerians are Arabs," he told AFP. "What has happened is deplorable. This outburst of anger in these two great Arab countries must stop," said Mussa, who was in Dubai for a forum organized by the World Economic Conference.