Sinai-based jihadist group claims to have carried out deadly Mansoura bombing

The Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdes has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s deadly car bombing of the Daqahliya security headquarters in Mansoura. Sixteen people were killed and more than 140 injured.

In a statement released Wednesday, the group confirmed that it had carried out the attack and said it would release video and audio evidence in the coming days.

A huge explosion rocked the city of Mansoura, north of Cairo, in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The car bomb, said to have been driven into the target site by a suicide bomber, was aimed at the city’s police headquarters. The blast caused the partial collapse of the building and damaged other buildings around it.

Late Tuesday, hundreds of Mansoura residents went on a rampage, targeting cars and businesses owned by Muslim Brotherhood supporters. The violence followed a statement by Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi, just hours after the blast, declaring that the Muslim Brotherhood is “a terrorist organization”, and blaming the group for the bombing.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdes said Wednesday that the attack was carried out by a person who drove the car to the site and then detonated the bomb inside the vehicle. One day before the Mansoura explosion, Ansar Beit al-Maqdes issued a warning to the military to withdraw its forces from Sinai or else it would face “an escalation of violence.”

The group earlier claimed responsibility for the October car bombing carried out at the Ismailia intelligence building, which killed one person; it also said it was behind the failed attempt on the life of Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim on September 5.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdes, based in Sinai, became active in Egypt following the removal of former President Mohamed Morsi from power. In its previous statements, the group said that its attacks were in revenge for the violent dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in August, which left hundreds dead. It has declared military and security buildings as “legitimate targets for jihadists,” and warned civilians to stay away from them.

Earlier on Wednesday, security forces said they had arrested a member of the Muslim Brotherhood at Cairo International Airport. The man, said to be 22 years old, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Mansoura attack, and was reported to have been planning to flee to Turkey, according to a report in the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper.

The Muslim Brotherhood has denied any connection with either suspect or to the attack, denouncing the Mansoura car bombing as an attack on the unity of Egyptians and demanding an investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.