Belfast Telegraph

Saturday 15 March 2014

Deadly bomb attacks shake Cairo

The funeral of five policemen killed at a checkpoint near Cairo. There are now reports of a major explosion in the Egyptian capital

At least five people have been killed in a string of bombings targeting police around Cairo.

The attacks included a suicide car blast that ripped through the city's main police headquarters and wrecked a nearby museum of Islamic artefacts. It is the most significant attack yet in the Egyptian capital at a time of mounting confrontation between Islamists and the military-backed government.


There was no immediate claim of responsibility for today's attacks. Islamic militants have increasingly targeted police and the military since the July 3 coup against Mohammed Morsi and the ensuing crackdown by security forces against his Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist supporters that has arrested thousands.


Islamists are trying to use tomorrow's anniversary to build momentum in their campaign of protests to "break the coup". Military supporters, in turn, aim to show broad popular support for the government and military chief General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the man who ousted Mr Morsi.

Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of police, called the bombings a "vile terrorist act" aimed at spreading panic ahead of tomorrow's pro-military rallies. "But people will only increasingly insist ... and join the masses in millions", he told reporters at the site of the bombed police headquarters.



Today's violence began around 6:30 am when a suicide car bomber blasted the police HQ in a central square, killing at least four people and sending billows of black smoke into the sky. The Health Ministry said in a statement that four policemen were killed and nearly 50 people wounded.

Several police officers sat on the pavemenet weeping outside the building as ambulances rushed in. A blanket covered a corpse on the ground that officers said was the suicide bomber.

The blast dug a large crater into the pavement, and the street was littered with vehicle parts, shattered glass, bricks and stones. The seven-storey facade of the security headquarters was wrecked, with air conditioning units dangling from broken windows. A nearby courthouse and shops were also damaged.




Windows were blasted out all the way up the facade of the building, which was built in 1881 and recently underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation. The antiquities minister, Mohammed Ibrahim, said artefacts inside were damaged, including a rare collection of Islamic art objects and that the museum will have to be rebuilt.

About two hours later, another bomb struck a police car on patrol near a metro station in the capital's Dokki district, killing one person and wounding eight others.

A third, smaller blast targeted the Talbiya police station about four kilometres (two miles) from the Giza Pyramids but caused no casualties.



A Brotherhood-led coalition had planned protests after Friday prayers across the country as part of their near-daily demonstrations against Mr Morsi's overthrow and the recent vote on the country's rewritten constitution.


Security officials say a bomb planted on a road has hit a convoy of security forces on a busy street in Cairo, killing one person in the fourth bombing in one day.


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