News / Egypt

Bomb blast near police training center leaves 16 casualties in Egypt’s Nile Delta

Sunday, 02 April 2017 4:39 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 02 April 2017 4:51 AM ]

This image shows police officers and investigators at the scene of a motorcycle bomb blast in Tanta, Egypt, April 1, 2017.

A newly-emerged militant group in Egypt has detonated a motorcycle bomb in the country’s Nile Delta region, killing a policeman and wounding 15 other people.

The bomb exploded near a police training center in the city of Tanta on Saturday, media reported.

Those wounded were mostly police officers, but civilians were among them, too. One of the wounded is said to be in critical condition.

The militant group that claimed responsibility for the attack via social media has named itself the Liwa el Thawra.

Egyptian security forces, judges and senior government officials have been regularly targeted by militant groups, most notoriously by a branch of the Takfiri Daesh outfit active in North Sinai, where hundreds of soldiers and police officers have been attacked.

The Daesh-linked terrorist group in North Sinai is named Velayat Sinai.

Militant groups have also been launching attacks on officials in other parts of Egypt, including the capital city, Cairo.

Liwa el Thawra has claimed responsibility for a number of recent attacks, including the assassination of a senior Egyptian military official, who was shot as he left his home on the outskirts of Cairo.

Brigadier General Adel Rajaaie, 52, an armored division commander who had served in North Sinai, was the most senior military official to be assassinated in Cairo since July 2013, when the army triggered turmoil by ousting the then-president of the country, Mohamed Morsi, who had been elected democratically.

The violence and turmoil has damaged Egypt’s once-booming tourist industry, a major source of hard currency for the country. The security and economic decline, though, initially started in 2011 with a nationwide uprising that led to the overthrow of long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak.

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