Egypt Minister Survives of Assassination Attempt, Warns of Terrorism

Local Editor

Egypt's interior minister survived an assassination attempt unscathed Thursday when a car bomb blew up next to his convoy and gunmen strafed his vehicle, prompting him to warn that a wave of terrorism by opponents of the military-installed government was just beginning.
The minister, Mohammad Ibrahim, was involved in overseeing a campaign against Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
No organization immediately claimed responsibility for the first attempt to kill an Egyptian minister since the 1990s, but it appeared to bear the hallmarks of the extremists attack.
"It is likely that it was a suicide explosion as a result of a high explosive device," an Interior Ministry statement said.
Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood - accused by the government of terrorism and inciting violence - condemned it.
But the sophisticated attack, possibly involving a suicide bomber with a massive bomb, as well as a follow-up attack with firearms, showed the risk that Egypt's crisis could spawn a wave of attacks like those of the 1980s and 1990s.
Staged in broad daylight, it was by far the most audacious act of militancy since Mursi's overthrow, although radicals have also stepped up an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.
In parallel, video footage emerged Thursday showing two militants firing rocket-propelled grenades at a container ship as it passed through the Suez Canal in the eastern Sinai Saturday.

"What happened today is not the end but the beginning," Ibrahim said. The Interior Ministry said the blast damage indicated that a 50-kg bomb had been used.
Footage taken by a bystander and posted on YouTube showed a vehicle ablaze as shots rang out for three minutes. A distant, unidentified voice could also be heard defiantly shouting "Allahu Akbar," or God is The Great.

A government video showed bullet holes all along the side of a white car identified as Ibrahim's, and security sources said police had killed two attackers.
The head of Cairo security, Osama al-Saghir, said the ambush began seconds after Ibrahim left his house in the capital's Nasr City on his way to work. A car driving ahead of the convoy exploded and the minister's armored vehicle also came under heavy gunfire, Saghir told the newspaper al-Ahram.

Gamaa Islamiya, a group involved in 1990s attacks that has since renounced violence, denied any link to Thursday's assault.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team