Daqahlia Security Directorate attacked

The office of the general prosecution has ordered an investigation into a bombing outside a Delta police station that left one dead and 28 injured in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The bomb exploded outside the Daqahlia Security Directorate in the governorate capital of Mansoura. A security source quoted by Al-Masry Al-Youm says that the device was highly developed.

According to the prosecutor general spokesperson spokesperson Ahmed al-Rakeeb, investigations are currently focusing on determining the type of device used in the incident and how it was detonated.

The bombing occurred hours before Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi called on Egyptians to take to the streets in mass protests on Friday to “authorize the Armed Forces to confront violence and terrorism” in a speech broadcast this morning.

There have been a series of violent confrontations between groups protesting in support of deposed President Mohamed Morsi and residents of the areas where marches and sit-ins are taking place. On Monday night nine people were killed in one such incident with eyewitnesses alleging that pro-Morsi protesters used guns during an attack on residents of the area surrounding the Al-Nahda sit-in in Giza.

Pro-Morsi protesters meanwhile claim that they were attacked by armed “thugs” and that snipers shot one protester dead from a building overlooking the sit-in.

In a statement released on Wednesday members of the Anti-Coup Coalition, a group made up of Islamist parties opposed to the army’s seizure of power on July 3, condemned the bombing saying that it denounces all acts of violence.

In its statement, the Anti-Coup Coalition accused the media of disseminating “lies and disinformation aimed at accusing the peaceful [pro-Morsi] protesters nationwide of these crimes.” It alleged that security and intelligence agencies have a plan to “plot violent attacks to terrorize citizens and then attempt to link these incidents to the peaceful protesters.”