Islamist Suspects Killed by Own Bomb in Egypt
Four suspected Egyptian Islamists were killed south of Cairo early Friday while preparing explosives on a farm owned by a senior member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, police said.
The blast in a village in the rural Fayoum province came hours after nine people were wounded when a small bomb went off in a train in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
It was not immediately clear whether the Brotherhood leader who owned the chicken farm, Ahmed Arafa Abdel Qadir, was himself among the dead.
One body was completely charred and another torn to pieces by the blast, police said.
The government insists the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement of ousted president Mohammed Morsi, is involved in militant attacks. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful organisation.
Islamists had staged protests on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of the military ousting Morsi, with two people killed in clashes between demonstrators and police.
Police said unexploded devices were also found at the site of Friday's blast, indicating that the farm apparently served as a bomb factory.
The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, identified the dead as "supporters" and said the explosion happened after someone hurled a bomb at them, blaming police.
Despite the Brotherhood saying it is committed to peaceful protest, there have been indications that some members have been involved in attacks on security forces during the crackdown that has killed at least 1,400 people and imprisoned thousands.
Scores of policemen and soldiers have been killed in bombings and shootings since Morsi's overthrow, mostly in the restive Sinai Peninsula.
The deadliest attacks have been claimed by militant groups ideologically similar to al-Qaida, and which have no proven links to the Brotherhood.
Source: Agence France Presse
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