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Attempt to assassinate Egyptian interior minister leaves 22 injured
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Egypt’s interior minister escaped an assassination attempt yesterday when a suspected car bomb struck his convoy in a Cairo neighborhood, in the first attack on a senior government official since the country’s Islamist president was toppled in a coup two months ago.
The assassination attempt against Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police force, fueled concerns over a possible wave of violence in retaliation for the July 3 ouster of Mohammed Morsi and the ensuing crackdown on Islamists.
The blast wounded at least 22 police and civilian bystanders and heavily damaged three vehicles in Ibrahim’s convoy — though he survived unhurt. Security officials said initial investigations showed it came from a parked car loaded with explosives in the trunk.
The attack echoed the sort of insurgency-style methods Islamic militants have increasingly used in Egypt’s tumultuous Sinai Peninsula. Last month, militants there attempted a suicide car bombing but were killed by police before carrying it out.
Some of Morsi’s more hard-line supporters have publicly threatened to wage assassinations and car bombings against officials of the military-backed government until the former president is reinstated.
There was no claim of responsibility for yesterday’s blast.
The Anti-Coup Coalition, which groups Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and other allied Islamist factions, condemned the attack, saying “it is against any violent act, even if it is against those who committed crimes against the people, because we aim to uphold the law.”
It warned that authorities will use the blast as a pretext to extend a state of emergency in place since Morsi’s removal and to increase “oppression” and arrests of Islamists.
The explosion detonated in the late morning as Ibrahim’s convoy passed through Nasr City, an eastern district of Cairo that is a stronghold of the Brotherhood. Among those wounded were 10 police and 11 civilians, including a 7-year-old child whose right leg was amputated, the security officials said.
A mangled body was found near the suspected bomb car and investigators were working to determine if it was of a bystander, a bomber or perhaps a lookout to signal the convoy’s approach, the officials said.
“It was a heinous (assassination) attempt,” Ibrahim said at the Interior Ministry in Cairo. The explosive device, he added, likely was detonated by remote control.
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