Protesters demonstrated outside Egypt's Ministry of Defense on Friday, demanding the military to end its rule and hand over power to civilians.

After mid-noon prayers on Friday, protesters left mosques in the capital Cairo and Giza governorates, and headed to the Ministry of Defense.

Meanwhile, military forces secured the building by barbed wires and iron barriers. Security Forces were also deployed with armored vehicles around the ministry in Abbasyia district in Cairo.

Some residents of Abbasyia formed human shields to protect the ministry from possible attacks by the demonstrators, while others helped organize traffic in the district.

Fans of local football club Ahly joined the protesters, also calling for the military council's stepping down over the football riot which left 73 killed and more than 1,000 injured.

Mohammad Samir, a radical fan of Ahly, believed that "security forces are involved in Port Said incidents," he told Xinhua.

The traffic was paralyzed in Abbasyia district, with streets filled with protesters waving banners and signs against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

More than a year after the unrest that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, dozens of political forces and universities announced civil disobedience. Several political parties, including Muslim Brotherhood's political wing Freedom and Justice party and Salafists' al-Nour party, however, announced their refusal of civil disobedience.

Egypt's Ministry of Health is on alert in all hospitals and medical emergency rooms during this period of civil disobedience, said the Health Ministry Undersecretary Hesham Sheeha.