Bomb attack kills 9 persons in Cairo near road leading to Egyptian pyramids

#cairo #egypt #AlHaram #pyramids A bomb attack in Cairo on a road leading to the pyramids has killed nine people - six of them were police officers. It has also injured 10 others. The bomb exploded when a team of officers raided an apartment in the suburb of Giza. It seems the building was booby-trapped and the device went off when the police attempted to defuse it.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 22 January 2016.

Police have blamed the blast in the Al-Haram district on the blacklisted Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. It seems a group of Muslim Brotherhood members were preparing to carry out aggressive acts in the coming days and would be using explosives and crude bombs and wee making use of an apartment in a Cairo building. The police raided the apartment and discovered a number of crude bombs. However, when the bomb squad expert was dealing with one of the bombs, it went off.
Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on Egyptian soldiers and police since the army toppled Morsi in 2013 which came after mass protests against his rule and the neighborhood of Al-Haram has witnessed a number of attacks and gunfights since the overthrow.
The building housed many of Morsi's sympathizers and used to be a regular venue for clashes between his supporters and security forces in the aftermath of his ouster by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Moreover, the district also houses hotels that are frequented by tourists who come to visit Cairo, given its proximity to the pyramids.
The explosion came ahead of the anniversary of the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and security forces have interrogated residents and searched more than 5,000 homes in central Cairo as a 'precautionary measure' in order to prevent street protests on the anniversary.

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Motorcycle riding gunmen open fire upon tourists as they boarded bus in Cairo

Motorcycle riding gunmen opened fire on tourists as they boarded a bus in Cairo. The attack happened at a hotel on a road that leads to the pyramids. Police succeeded in nabbing both the gunmen - there were no casualties. One gunman was arrested at the scene and the other one, who wore a mask, in another part of Cairo.
The incident has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 January 2016.

Among the tourists were two Israelis and, the incident took place in front of the Three Pyramids Hotel which was sprayed with bullets.
Incidentally, Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christians are celebrating Christmas today in the predominantly Muslim country and tourism is the mainstay of the Egyptian economy. It has been struggling to recover from political turmoil that had been triggered by the 2011 uprising in which Hosni Mubarak was toppled from power.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has already declared an all-out war on Islamist militants, who are trying to destabilize the country through suicide bombings and shooting attacks. On October 31, Islamic State's Egypt affiliate had planted a bomb on a Russian passenger plane that crashed in the Sinai killing all 224 people on board. As a result, Russia put a stop to all Russian flights to and from Egypt, while Britain has suspended air links with Sharm el-Sheikh, where the plane took off.
Incidentally, millions of tourists, mostly Britons and Russians, flock to the Red Sea resort which has the attractions of year-round pristine beaches, warm weather and dive sites.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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