A bombing in Cairo Monday is the third attack in four days in Egypt https://t.co/urlX0i7TGo via @WSJ— WSJ Middle East (@WSJMidEast) February 19, 2019
The Wall Street Journal
written by Jared Malsin and Amira El-Fekki
Monday February 18, 2019
CAIRO—A suicide bombing in the heart of Egypt’s capital killed two police officers late Monday, the third attack in four days on the country’s security forces, as they carry out a yearslong campaign against Islamic State and other extremist groups.
A man blew himself up in a Cairo neighborhood near the 10th century Al-Azhar Mosque, as police attempted to arrest him, according to a statement from Egypt’s Interior Ministry carried by the official MENA news agency. Two policemen died and two others were injured, the statement said. The attacker also died in the explosion.
The mosque is the seat of one of the Sunni Muslim world’s most important religious authorities and centers of scholarship.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.
The bombing comes just two days after Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 15 Egyptian soldiers in the northern Sinai Peninsula in one of the deadliest attacks on Egyptian forces in months. The man who blew himself up on Monday was wanted in connection with a third bomb attack on Friday that wounded three people in Cairo’s Giza district.
The Egyptian government is fighting a long war with North Sinai province-based insurgents who merged with Islamic State in 2014. The Egyptian wing of the extremist group has killed hundreds of police and soldiers, brought down a commercial airliner and carried out dozens of attacks targeting Coptic Christians.
Islamic State has launched numerous attacks in countries like Egypt, Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent months as it faces imminent defeat in eastern Syria, which is all that remains of what the group once claimed as its caliphate. Analysts expect such attacks will only intensify, as Islamic State reverts to insurgency.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, a former armed forces chief who came to power following a military coup in 2013, argues that his government is a firewall against chaos and extremism in the Middle East. But militant attacks have surged following the military takeover, testing his rule.
Egyptian officials are currently pushing through a set of constitutional changes that would allow Mr. Sisi to stay in power until at least 2034 and further cement the power of the military within the state.
In February 2018, Mr. Sisi’s government launched a new military offensive in North Sinai aimed at ending the insurgency once and for all. A year later, daily violence continues in the remote region which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip.
9 terrorists of those participated in the assassination of the #Egypt ian general prosecutor will be executed by a court ruling within hours ..— Mona el ASHRY (@Monashry) February 20, 2019
I see the terrorist cult of #MB followers whining online as if the 9 criminals were angels with wings and hallow ..— Mona el ASHRY (@Monashry) February 20, 2019
of course because #MB s see those terrorists as knights doing "God's work" by killing us infidel Egyptians and trying to destroy our state ..
And #Egypt is still standing alone, fighting terrorism. Against all the odds, against the #ArabSpring , against the #CreativeChaos , against all the international economic blockade, against fake-news media,— Mona el ASHRY (@Monashry) February 20, 2019
against human rights pretenders who are driven by the petrodollars smeared with innocent blood, and against the American democrats union with the terrorist cult of #MuslimBrotherhood ..— Mona el ASHRY (@Monashry) February 20, 2019
against all that and more Egypt stands alone in the #MiddleEast and the world fighting terrorism ..— Mona el ASHRY (@Monashry) February 20, 2019
The Daily News Egypt local
written by Staff
Tuesday February 19, 2019
A total of 16 militants were killed in North Sinai governorate on Tuesday morning during two raids by Egypt’s security forces, according to the ministry of interior.
This came after the National Security Apparatus identified two terrorist hideouts, with its members planning an attack against vital institutions and figures in the city of El-Arish, the ministry said.
The first raid was carried on an empty plot of land in the Ubaidat district in El-Arish city, where ten terrorists were killed in a fire exchange with the security forces. The remaining six were also killed in a fire exchange in a hideout located in an under-construction house in Abu Eita district.
Firearms, ammunition, and explosives were found at the hideout.
The raids came one day after a suicide bombing was carried out at Al-Darb Al-Ahmar district in Giza, killing three policemen and injuring another five.
On Saturday, Egypt’s armed forces said that 15 Egyptian military personnel were killed during an attack on a security check point in North Sinai, while seven militants were also killed in the attack.
Egypt launched ‘Operation Sinai 2018’ in February of that year, which involved the army, navy, air force, and police in order to fight terrorism in Sinai. The main aim of ‘Operation Sinai 2018’ is to target and destroy “terrorist, criminal elements, and organisations” in northern and central Sinai, parts of the Nile Delta, and the country’s Western Desert.
FLASHBACK to Dec 2018
Hours after a deadly roadside bomb targeted a tourist bus near the Giza Pyramids, Egypt said its security forces killed 40 militants in raids on their hideouts. https://t.co/wx4xNVWwHb— The Associated Press (@AP) December 29, 2018
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