IMAN Chairman condemns terror attacks in Egypt
Domingo, 8 Marzo 2015
Bomb blast in downtown Cairo wounds 9 people
THE SEATTLE TIMES
A midday bomb blast in one of the busiest boulevards in downtown Cairo wounded nine people on Monday, the police said. Shortly after the explosion, a little-known group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The bomb was hidden under a car parked near the High Court — the country’s highest criminal court — and went off in Cairo’s Ramses neighborhood. The area is very crowded, with dozens of street vendors selling their ware on stalls set up on the asphalt. Nearby are several bus stops, a railway station and a subway station.
Egyptian private The Seventh Day TV broadcast footage of the site, showing hundreds of onlookers around cars with smashed windows and blood on the pavement. Police cordoned off the area and state TV later reported that a second bomb was dismantled before it went off.
The Interior Ministry and the Health Ministry said there were no deaths, correcting an earlier state TV report that said one person died. The wounded included three officers, two conscripts and four civilians.
Egypt has seen a wave of attacks, mostly targeting the country’s security forces, since the military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013. A Sinai-based militant group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State extremists fighting in Syria and Iraq, has claimed responsibility for several suicide bombings and larger attacks. Other groups have claimed responsibility for attacks carried out by small, homemade explosive devices that caused few casualties.
A group calling itself “Revolutionary Punishment” claimed responsibility on its Twitter account for Monday’s attack, saying they targeted a police checkpoint. The group is believed to mostly consist of Islamist youths seeking revenge for the ongoing crackdown on Morsi’s supporters.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group has been branded as a terrorist organization and its members are either underground, on the run or in jail, awaiting trial.
The attacks have raised fears ahead of a major economic conference in Egypt later this month, aimed at attracting foreign investment.
On Sunday, a bomb went off near a police station in the southern city of Aswan, killing two civilians and wounding a soldier and four others.
One dead, 11 wounded in series of attacks in Egypt
REUTERS
A series of bombings killed one person and injured nine in Egypt's second city of Alexandria on Sunday and an attack by unidentified gunmen in another province wounded two others, security and medical sources said.
Egypt is facing an Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds of police officers and soldiers since the army removed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.
Most militant attacks take place in the remote but strategic Sinai Peninsula, but attacks in cities, particularly near police stations, have also increased.
Sunday's first blast killed one person and wounded five others outside a supermarket in the Seyouf district of eastern Alexandria, Magdy Hegazy, undersecretary at the health ministry said.
A bomb blast outside Harambe police station in central Alexandria wounded four more, while security forces disarmed a third bomb device in the vicinity, security sources said.
A fourth bomb went off near the Bab Sharq police station without injuring or killing anyone, Hegazy said.
In Qalyubia province, north of Cairo, one policeman and one civilian were wounded in the attack by unidentified gunmen, security sources said.
Condemning the attack, IMAN Chairman, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I am very concerned to hear of these latest terror attacks in Egypt; yet again this is a symptom of how extremism is getting out of control.
The international community must do all it can to help the Egyptian government rid the nation of extremists and the perverted ideology that they subscribe to.
Egypt has a bright future ahead with a tremendous amount of potential to be realised, however whilst extremist factions are sill operating in the country economic development will continue to be hindered.
These extremists will stop at nothing to realise their goal of an Islamic Caliphate under Sharia Law and we simply cannot allow this to happen.
I urge the international community to fully support the Egyptian government in its battle against Islamic extremism."
