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Egypt’s Interior Minister Survives Attack | Egypt’s Interior Minister Survives Attack |
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CAIRO — The Egyptian interior minister survived an assassination attempt on Thursday in which a powerful explosion detonated near his convoy, security officials said. The explosion killed at least one police officer and damaged buildings and left cars burning on a residential street in Cairo, sharply escalating the violence in Egypt’s political crisis. | |
Interior Ministry officials said that the explosion appeared to have come from a motorcycle laden with at last three improvised explosive devices that were detonated by remote control, according to a preliminary investigation. It occurred shortly after the minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, left his house on Thursday morning in a convoy of cars. Security officials said that in addition to at least one death, at least six people were injured, including five of the minister’s guards. | |
Mr. Ibrahim, who was unharmed, avoided the explosion by “seconds,” an Interior Ministry official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion. | Mr. Ibrahim, who was unharmed, avoided the explosion by “seconds,” an Interior Ministry official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion. |
On the wide boulevard in the Nasr City neighborhood where the explosion occurred, a mangled motorcycle could be seen lying next to damaged facades of two buildings. Three cars were destroyed in the explosion and at least seven others were badly damaged. A white Nissan car was pockmarked with holes from what may have been bullets or shrapnel. The blast shattered the glass doors of refrigerators in small kiosks fifty yards away. | |
The apparent bombing was the first attack on a senior government official since Mohamed Morsi was ousted from the presidency in early July by the military, setting off violent confrontations between the security forces and Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters. The Egyptian stock market held steady on Thursday, with investors having evidently anticipated that there would continue to be flashes of violence. | |
The military and the police have killed more than 1,ooo protesters since the ouster, as part of a widening crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most prominent Islamist movement. Thousands more Brotherhood leaders and members, including Mr. Morsi, have been arrested and jailed. As the repression of the Islamists has intensified, worries have grown that militants angry at the ouster of Mr. Morsi would turn to violence against the state. | |
Dr. Amr Darrag, a senior official of the Brotherhood, issued a statement saying the group “strongly condemns” the apparent attempt on the interior minister’s life, which it called regrettable. “The bombing should be condemned, irrespective of the perpetrators,” he said in the statement to Al Jazeera, the Arabic television network. “We reaffirm our peaceful approach, which is clear in all our protests.” | |
After the bombing, Mr. Ibrahim called the attack “the beginning” of a new wave of terrorism, according to Reuters. | |
David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting. | David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting. |