Bombing on Bridge in Egypt Capital Kills Officer
A bomb exploded near a checkpoint on a bridge in an affluent Cairo neighborhood on Sunday, killing a policeman, Egyptian police said.
The bomb had been placed next to the checkpoint on a side of the May 15 bridge in the Zamalek neighborhood, the officials said.
Two people including a woman were wounded in the blast, which tore the victim's body to pieces, a health ministry official said.
A police official said the bomb went off as the driver of a minivan pulled over to ask the policeman officer a question, probably for directions.
Militants have repeatedly detonated bombs in Cairo targeting police checkpoints and vehicles.
Sunday's bombing was claimed by jihadist group Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt), which has previously said it was behind similar attacks targeting security forces in the city.
"Once again Allah allowed our brave soldiers to plant a bomb targeting an assembly of the criminal forces," Ajnad Misr said on its Twitter account.
The group says its attacks are in retaliation for the deaths of hundreds of Islamist protesters killed in a government crackdown since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Ajnad Misr has claimed responsibility for bombings outside the presidential palace and foreign ministry that last year killed four policemen, two of them explosives experts.
The jihadist group has said it deliberately uses low-yield bombs to avoid harming passers-by, but there has also been a rise in civilian casualties.
A bomb outside Cairo University last month wounded four civilians and four policemen.
Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, the strongest political movement before his overthrow, has been designated a terrorist group although it denies being violent.
However, some Brotherhood members are believed to have resorted to plotting attacks on policemen after the crackdown drove them underground.
In the Sinai Peninsula, jihadists affiliated to the Islamic State group have killed scores of security personnel, including at least 15 soldiers in coordinated attacks last week.
The military says it has killed a number of militants in Sinai, and on Sunday broadcast footage of bodies of suspected militants.
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who toppled Morsi and later won a presidential election, has staked his leadership on eradicating the militant groups.
Attacks have dwindled in the past year as the government tries to attract investment and tourism.
But the latest attacks have shown militants can still operate despite the crackdown and harsh verdicts against those convicted.
Civilian and military courts have sentenced dozens of people to death, although only one sentence has been carried out so far, by hanging.
Morsi himself could face the gallows if convicted in one of his trials on charges of espionage with foreign powers and collusion to carry out attacks with militants before he became the country's first democratically elected president in 2012.
Source: Agence France Presse
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