CAIRO // Six policemen were killed in a bombing at a checkpoint in Cairo on Friday.
The attack struck in the western Talibiya neighbourhood shortly before Friday prayers, when Cairo’s streets are mostly empty.
The Hassam Movement, a militant group which has claimed a string of recent attacks, said it was behind the bombing.
The UAE strongly condemned the bombing, saying it stood firmly by Egypt’s side in the face of such crimes. It stressed that such acts would not undermine the resolve of the people of Egypt and its determination to continue to address decisively the terrorism that has no country, religion nor morality.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation expressed condolences to the families of the martyrs and to the government and people of Egypt and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded.
The blast was also condemned by Sheikh Ahmed Al Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Egypt’s Al Azhar University.
“Such abhorrent terrorist attacks will only embolden the Egyptian people and the police to uproot terrorism,” he said.
The interior ministry said the bomb exploded next to a checkpoint, killing two officers, a policeman and three conscripts.
Three other conscripts were wounded.
Militants have repeatedly attacked policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013 and began cracking down on his followers.
Most of the attacks are carried out in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula by a local ISIL affiliate, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen.
But militants have also targeted security forces and government officials in the capital.
Most of the Cairo attacks in recent months have been claimed by two little known militant groups, the Hassam Movement and a group named Lawaa Al Thawra.
Police say Hassam and Lawaa Al Thawra are affiliated with Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was banned months after his overthrow and listed as a terrorist organisation.
* Agence France-Presse