Hassm claims responsibility of alleged Myanmar Embassy bombing in Cairo, Embassy denies

The militant group Hassm claimed responsibility on Sunday for an alleged attack on the Myanmar Embassy in Cairo on Saturday night.

“The bombing is a warning message to the embassy of slaughterers which kills women and children in Muslim Arakan [the Rakhine State]. [The bombing] is in support of the people of this weak Muslim nation,” the statement added.

An official at the Myanmar Embassy, which is located on the island of Zamalek where there are several other embassies and a heavy security presence, denied Hassm’s claim in comments to Mada Masr, saying that there had not been an attack on the embassy on Saturday. “The embassy is operating normally, and I am talking to you from inside the embassy. They are liars,” the official said.

The conflict in Myanmar is characterized by Aung San Suu Kyi’s military-backed government’s accusations that Rohingya militant groups in Rakhine State have initiated violence that has forcibly displaced more than 400,000 people from the ethnic and religious Rohingya minority to neighboring countries. On the other hand, Rohingya and international rights groups have accused the government of “ethnic cleansing” and discriminatory violence, highlighting a fight over who is deploying violence against whom in Myanmar.

A loud explosion was reportedly heard in Zamalek on Saturday night. According to a security source cited in the privately owned Al-Watan newspaper, a gas pipe had exploded in an abandoned apartment building in the area.

Hassm has carried out a number of armed attacks against police and military personnel in recent years. According to Interior Ministry statements, security forces recently have arrested and killed a number of Hassm members across Egypt, but the group has denied these claims.