New militant group claims Wednesday bombing in name of ‘vengeance’

A militant group calling itself Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt) has claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed one Central Security Forces officer and injured two conscripts in October 6 City on Wednesday.

In a statement posted on what is purportedly the group’s Facebook page on Wednesday night, the group accused the victim, identified as Brigadier General Ahmed Zaki, of killing protesters.

The Ajnad Misr statement said that they had carefully monitored Zaki's movements and placed the bomb in a small, unmarked car outside the officer’s home, reported the privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY), detonating the explosive device when he entered the vehicle on Wednesday morning.

Photographs were published along with the statement allegedly showing Zaki sitting in the car prior to the explosion.

The group claimed they timed the bombing carefully to minimize civilian casualties.

Since former President Mohamed Morsi was removed from power by military mandate last July , a wave of bombings targeting army and police personnel has swept the country. The attacks occurred against the backdrop of a state crackdown on the now banned Muslim Brotherhood group and other Islamist organizations.

The Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdes claimed responsibility for several of the attacks, including the attempted assassination of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim last September and the bombing of the Cairo Security Directorate in January.

The Ajnad Misr group first identified itself in January with a series of statements declaring its intention to launch a campaign against state security forces in retaliation against the crackdown on Islamists. It has since claimed responsibility for a number of bombings, including last week’s explosion near a traffic police kiosk by the Galaa Bridge in Dokki, which injured two policemen.

Police apprehended the assailant, who allegedly confessed that the bombing was part of an organized operation called Al-Qassas (Vengeance), reported AMAY.

Ajnad Misr also claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in Cairo University on April 2 that killed a police brigadier general and left at least five others injured, according to the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.

Shortly after the Cairo University attack, Ajnad Misr issued a statement saying the explosion targeted police officers responsible for the mass killing of protesters as well as the detention of female demonstrators, as reported in the Associated Press.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb responded to Wednesday’s bombing in a statement published on the Cabinet’s official Facebook page, declaring that “the country is fighting a fierce war against terrorism and extremism that wants to obstruct the country’s path.”

Speaking at a press conference, Mehleb said that these terrorist forces would not succeed as long as Egyptians stood “shoulder to shoulder.”

The military-backed interim government declared a war on terrorism following the brutal dispersal of two sit-in camps protesting Morsi’s ouster in Cairo last August that left over 1,000 dead.

In addition to an intensive military operation in Sinai, which the Armed Forces claims is a stronghold of Islamist insurgency, elsewhere in the country thousands of alleged Muslim Brotherhood members have been arrested in the course of demonstrations, with hundreds sentenced to death.

The Cabinet declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization in December, and also designated Ansar Beit al-Maqdes as a terrorist group in early April.

Two counter-terrorism bills have been approved by the Cabinet and sent for judicial review. Although the draft laws have not been circulated, leaked copies have elicited condemnation for their vague language that critics warn could lead to the harsh repression of civil liberties.