1 dead in Cairo after multiple bombings

5 others were wounded in the attacks on Thursday that included an explosiion outside a restaurant in a residential district.

A man walks at one of the sites of bombings in Cairo on February 27. EPA

CAIRO // A series of blasts in Cairo on Thursday killed one person and wounded at least seven, Egyptian security officials said, the latest in a wave of attacks using homemade explosives that authorities blame on extremists.

The officials said four bombs exploded in the residential districts of Imbabah and Mohandiseen in the Egyptian capital, which is home to some 18 million people. Later, a blast outside a police station in the nearby Warraq district wounded four people, including a police conscript.

Egypt has for years been battling a burgeoning insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, but the frequency of attacks against army and police there has spiked since the 2013 removal of president Mohammed Morsi.

Small bombings have also been carried out in Cairo and other cities, targeting public transport, shopping malls and government buildings. They have caused few casualties, but have heightened tensions four years after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Militants have vowed to step up their campaign of violence in the run-up to a key economic conference scheduled for next month in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El Sheikh. The government of president Abdel Fattah El Sissi, who led the military removal of Mr Morsi, is hoping to attract foreign investment to revive the ailing economy.

* Associated Press