Sunday, 29 December 2013

Bomb near Egypt intel building wounds four soldiers

Bomb near Egypt intel building wounds
four soldiers
on december 29, 2013 at 4:47 pm in news
A bomb near an army intelligence building wounded
four soldiers Sunday, the third such blast within a
week after the Muslim Brotherhood’s designation as
a terrorist organisation further polarised Egypt.
The explosion, which the army called a “cowardly
terrorist” act, comes as the military-installed
authorities plan to hold a referendum on a new
constitution next month, the first step towards
democracy since the ouster of Islamist president
Mohamed Morsi in July.
Sunday’s blast in Sharqiya province in the Nile
Delta destroyed the rear compound wall of the
intelligence building, the army said, adding that four
soldiers were wounded.
It was the third such attack in less than a week.
Another was averted on Sunday when experts
defused a bomb near the front gate of Al-Azhar’s
medical faculty in New Damietta city north of Cairo,
security officials said.
On Tuesday, a suicide car bomber killed 15 people
at a police building in Mansoura, north of the capital.
And on Thursday, a bomb in Cairo wounded five
people on a bus.
The Mansoura attack, one of the deadliest since
Morsi’s ouster, triggered widespread outrage.
A day after that attack, which was claimed by Al-
Qaeda-inspired jihadists, the authorities accused
the Brotherhood of perpetrating it and listed the
Islamist movement to which Morsi belongs as a
“terrorist organisation”.
But the Brotherhood, which prevailed in all elections
since the ouster of strongman Hosni Mubarak in
early 2011, said it is “innocent of any violent
incident that has (been) or will be committed”.
Designating the Brotherhood as a terrorist group is
a hardening of the government position in its
ongoing crackdown on Morsi’s Islamist supporters.
It means hundreds of thousands of Brotherhood
members now face prison sentences if they hold
demonstrations or are found in possession of the
movement’s recordings or literature.
The designation also means Brotherhood leaders
currently on trial face possible death sentences if
found guilty.
On Sunday, police in the Mediterranean city of
Alexandria arrested three people, including two
minors, after they searched a printer’s and found
propaganda material backing the Brotherhood and
opposing the security forces.
The crackdown on Morsi’s supporters since the
army ousted him on July 3 has seen more than
1,000 people killed and thousands of his backers
arrested.
But the Brotherhood has still held demonstrations
across Egypt, especially over the past three days,
with at least seven people killed in clashes between
Morsi’s supporters and opponents.
Universities also saw severe unrest this week, and
on Saturday a 19-year-old student was shot dead
at Al-Azhar’s Cairo campus, where pro-Morsi
students have staged regular protests.
The students entered the commerce faculty of the
university during an exam and set it alight, before
police burst into the campus and fired tear gas.
A police official said 101 students were arrested
and the fire on the first two floors of the building
was brought under control.
The violence came a day after five people were
killed in clashes across Egypt, as police stamped
down hard on Brotherhood demonstrations.
On Sunday, student Brotherhood backers torched
an exam hall at Al-Azhar University, security
officials said, adding that 27 “rioters” were arrested.
The interim authorities have decapitated the 85-
year-old Brotherhood, imprisoning Morsi and most
of the movement’s leadership and putting them on
trial for allegedly colluding with militants.
More than 100 soldiers and policemen have been
killed in the Sinai since Morsi’s ouster.
Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Morsi
ruled for just one turbulent year before the military
overthrew him following mass protests demanding
his resignation.

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