A BOMB ATTACK in Egypt’s Sinai region killed ten soldiers while another blast struck police in Cairo, amid the continuing wave of unrest following Islamist president Mohamed Morsi’s July ousting.
The ten soldiers were killed when a car bomb exploded next to an army bus in the Sinai peninsula earlier today, where Islamists have carried out scores of attacks on security forces in recent months, the army said.
In a separate incident, assailants hurled an explosive device at a checkpoint in northern Cairo, wounding four police, security sources said.
The military said that 35 others were wounded, some critically, in the North Sinai attack, in which a car packed with explosives detonated as the bus drove by near the regional capital El-Arish.
Deadliest in the region
The Sinai bombing was the deadliest in the region bordering Gaza and Israel since an August 19th ambush by gunmen on a convoy of security forces that killed 25 policemen in the North Sinai town of Rafah.
On September 5th, a car bomb had targeted Egypt’s interim interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim in Cairo.
That attack was claimed by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a Sinai-based group inspired by Al-Qaeda, which on Tuesday said it was also responsible for Sunday’s assassination of police Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Mabruk, who was involved in the ongoing crackdown on Islamists.
“Series of operations”
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis said its attack on Mabruk was the first in a “series of operations”.
Egypt has been plagued by unrest since the army stepped in to remove Morsi from power on July 3 amid massive protests against the turbulent one-year rule of Egypt’s first freely elected president.
Militants have stepped up a campaign against security forces in the mountainous and underdeveloped Sinai since Morsi’s ouster, killing dozens of troops and police in near-daily attacks.
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