Bomb blast in Cairo kills senior policemen

It came just hours after president Abdel Fattah El Sisi departed to New York for the UN General Assembly where he is expected to discuss militancy in the region.

CAIRO // At least two policemen were killed yesterday when a bomb exploded near a checkpoint outside the foreign ministry headquarters in Cairo, the first deadly attack in the capital since June.

The blast brought down a tree onto a car, several metres from a congealing puddle of blood where one of the victims had fallen.

It came just hours after the president, Abdel Fattah El Sisi, a former army chief who has fought militants since he overthrew the ruling Islamists last year, flew to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where he is expected to discuss Islamist militancy in the region.

Two lieutenant colonels died and six people were wounded in the explosion of an improvised bomb.

Police cordoned off the crime scene, in a crowded district in central Cairo along the Nile River, and deployed sniffer dogs to search the area for more bombs.

Militants have killed scores of policemen in bombings and shootings since Egypt’s military removed the Islamist Mohammed Morsi as president in July last year.

In the past, they had set off several bombs in succession to target first responders after the initial attack.

Two police bomb disposal experts were killed trying to defuse bombs outside the presidential palace in June, the last major attack in the capital before the explosion yesterday.

The attack came days after Mohamed Ibrahim, the interior minister, held a press conference to announce the killing and arrest of several Islamist militants.

“It is a cowardly act and a political message but it won’t hinder the progress of the Egyptian people,” Galal Said, Cairo’s governor, said near the scene of explosion.

Some passers-by gathered around chanting “the people demand the execution of the Brotherhood”, referring to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood movement that Mr Morsi is a member of.

Previous bombings in Cairo were claimed by the Ajnad Misr militant group, which said it was avenging more than 1,000 pro-Morsi protesters killed in street clashes with police after the Islamist’s removal and detention.

* Agence France-Presse