Car Bomb Explodes Near a Security Building in Cairo
By LIAM STACK
AUG. 19, 2015
New York Times
A car bomb detonated with a thunderous explosion in front of a security building in Cairo early Thursday morning, the authorities said.
It was the latest in a series of attacks in the capital that have unnerved Egyptians and underscored the challenges facing the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in its campaign against Islamist militants.
The blast occurred in the working class neighborhood of Shubra al-Kheima shortly before 2 a.m., tearing through a local office of the government’s national security force and ripping down part of the building’s facade, according to a person with knowledge of the episode who asked for anonymity to discuss a sensitive security matter. Eight people were hurt; no deaths were reported.
The blast was felt across the capital, rousing people from sleep and disrupting late-night gatherings, as residents of far-off neighborhoods posted on Twitter that the explosion had shaken the earth under their feet and blew open their windows.
Video broadcast by CBC, an Egyptian news channel, showed the bare white security building, its windows blown out and its face shorn off with rubble in the street.
Egypt has grappled with a growing insurgency in the two years since the military removed President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood from power. Each new attack has chipped away at Egyptians’ sense of security and claims by Mr. Sisi’s government to have gained the upper hand over the militants.
In the space of five days last month, militants based in the Sinai Peninsula and linked to the Islamic State claimed responsibility for both a car bombing in the heart of the capital and the destruction of a naval vessel off the country’s Mediterranean coast.
The bombing killed one person and destroyed part of the Italian Consulate in central Cairo, the group’s first attack on a foreign diplomatic mission. The naval ship appeared to have been attacked by a missile, according to pictures the group posted to social media.
On Wednesday a report by Human Rights Watch strongly criticized the Sisi government’s new antiterrorism law, enacted this week, for being “so broadly worded it could encompass civil disobedience.”
Nadim Houry, the organization’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa said that “the government has equipped itself with even greater powers to continue stamping out its critics and opponents under its vague and ever-expanding war on terrorism.”
The law was proposed after the assassination of Egypt’s top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, in a car bombing in June.
AUG. 19, 2015
New York Times
A car bomb detonated with a thunderous explosion in front of a security building in Cairo early Thursday morning, the authorities said.
It was the latest in a series of attacks in the capital that have unnerved Egyptians and underscored the challenges facing the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in its campaign against Islamist militants.
The blast occurred in the working class neighborhood of Shubra al-Kheima shortly before 2 a.m., tearing through a local office of the government’s national security force and ripping down part of the building’s facade, according to a person with knowledge of the episode who asked for anonymity to discuss a sensitive security matter. Eight people were hurt; no deaths were reported.
The blast was felt across the capital, rousing people from sleep and disrupting late-night gatherings, as residents of far-off neighborhoods posted on Twitter that the explosion had shaken the earth under their feet and blew open their windows.
Video broadcast by CBC, an Egyptian news channel, showed the bare white security building, its windows blown out and its face shorn off with rubble in the street.
Egypt has grappled with a growing insurgency in the two years since the military removed President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood from power. Each new attack has chipped away at Egyptians’ sense of security and claims by Mr. Sisi’s government to have gained the upper hand over the militants.
In the space of five days last month, militants based in the Sinai Peninsula and linked to the Islamic State claimed responsibility for both a car bombing in the heart of the capital and the destruction of a naval vessel off the country’s Mediterranean coast.
The bombing killed one person and destroyed part of the Italian Consulate in central Cairo, the group’s first attack on a foreign diplomatic mission. The naval ship appeared to have been attacked by a missile, according to pictures the group posted to social media.
On Wednesday a report by Human Rights Watch strongly criticized the Sisi government’s new antiterrorism law, enacted this week, for being “so broadly worded it could encompass civil disobedience.”
Nadim Houry, the organization’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa said that “the government has equipped itself with even greater powers to continue stamping out its critics and opponents under its vague and ever-expanding war on terrorism.”
The law was proposed after the assassination of Egypt’s top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, in a car bombing in June.
No comments:
Post a Comment