CAIRO - A series of explosions Friday across Cairo killed at least six people, injured scores of others and fueled fears that Islamist insurgents were taking their battle against Egypt’s military-backed government to the capital.
The four attacks, beginning with an early-morning vehicle bomb outside a central security headquarters, happened despite tight security on the eve of the third anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.Interim President Adly Mansour urged supporters of the government to show up to mark the occasion, which is also a holiday celebrating the nation’s police force.
Mansour was quoted by state media as pledging to “root out” any group threatening state security. The interior minister had already pledged to deal harshly with any disruption of today’s commemorations - a clear warning to the Muslim Brotherhood and other supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi, who also vowed to take to the streets.
Clashes around the country Friday between security forces and Morsi’s backers were reported to have left at least 14 people dead.
The powerful explosion outside a police headquarters in downtown Cairo was the largest and deadliest of the day’s blasts, killing at least four people. It shattered windows nearly half a mile away, carpeted the roadway with scorched debris and seriously damaged Cairo’s Museum of Islamic Art, a stately 19th-century building, which sits across the street from the police building and had just undergone a multimillion-dollar renovation.
Experts scrambled to try to save thousands of priceless treasures as ceilings crumbled in the museum, which was “totally destroyed and needs to be rebuilt,” Minister of Antiquities Mohammed Ibrahim said.
Abdullah el-Sayyed, a 26-year-old salesman who lives behind the police headquarters, said he was wakened by the blast, followed by heavy gunfire by frantic policemen. “They were firing their guns in panic as if to call for rescue,” he said.
After the blast, several police officers sat on the sidewalk outside the building, weeping as ambulances rushed in. A body lay on the ground, covered by a sheet as a crowd of distraught-looking residents surveyed the damage.
Touring the site, Egypt’s interior minister, who also is named Mohammed Ibrahim, called the bombings a “vile terrorist act” and implicitly blamed the Brotherhood, without naming it. “They will reach a point where coexistence will be impossible,” he said.
Meanwhile, about 200 angry onlookers gathered outside a police cordon at the site, many shouting slogans against Morsi and in favor of army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who with popular backing ousted Morsi in July and is expected to disclose soon whether he will run for president.
“What we need is for more of them to be put in jail or put to death,” Adel Reda said grimly, referring to members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Others waved placards bearing the image of el-Sissi’s sunglasses-clad visage.
About two hours after the police headquarters bombing, attackers threw a bomb at a police car near a metro station in the Dokki district on the other side of the Nile River, killing one person and wounding eight others, the prosecutor’s office said.
A third, smaller blast targeted the Talbiya police station about 2 miles from the famed Giza Pyramids but caused no casualties, security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
A fourth blast, in the early evening near a cinema, killed one person, state television said.
A claim of responsibility for all four attacks emerged late Friday from an al-Qaida-inspired group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or the Champions of Jerusalem, saying it aimed to avenge Morsi’s supporters, hundreds of whom have been killed or arrested in a post-coup crackdown. On Thursday, the group issued an online audio statement warning police and soldiers to defect or face new attacks.
Security officials said three suspects had been identified in the security headquarters attack, adding that they belonged to the Brotherhood and “extremist groups.” The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
The interim government has consistently blamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood for such attacks, even when another group claims responsibility.
The Brotherhood, which allied with some radical groups while in power, denies the claim, saying the government is using it to justify its efforts to eliminate it as a rival. The crackdown has expanded to silence other forms of dissent, with arrests of secular activists critical of the military, security forces and the new administration.
For activists, that has raised deep concerns over a return of a police state despite the government’s promises of democracy.
But among a broad swath of the public, those concerns are eclipsed by fear of the wave of militant bombings and shootings since the coup, which have largely targeted police but increasingly hit in public areas taking civilian casualties.
And the public fury has been funneled at the Brotherhood: After Friday’s bombings, TV stations aired telephone calls from viewers pleading with el-Sissi to definitively crush the group.
“Execution for Morsi and his leaders,” one man shouted through a megaphone as an angry crowd gathered outside the Cairo security headquarters hit in Friday’s first bombing.
“Morsi is the butcher and el-Sissi will slaughter him,” screamed a woman, holding up a picture depicting the Brotherhood as sheep.
An Islamist alliance made up of the Brotherhood and its allies condemned Friday’s attacks and blamed them on the Interior Ministry, saying it wanted to turn the public against the Islamists.
The alliance vowed to push ahead with protests today, saying, “The revolution will continue down its peaceful track to bring down the military coup.”
Hours after Friday’s attacks, the Brotherhood held its daily protests, which it has vowed to step up ahead of today’s anniversary. The marches quickly turned into clashes with police, joined by residents furious at the Brotherhood, in several districts of Cairo and in cities across the country. The Health Ministry said 14 people were killed in the violence.
Attacks against the security forces are commonplace in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, where police and the army are battling a low-level insurgency, but attacks are still a relative rarity in major Egyptian cities. The last major strike in Cairo proper was a suicide bombing in September aimed at the interior minister, who escaped unharmed.
A bombing a month ago at a security headquarters in the northern city of Mansoura killed at least 15 people and prompted the interim government to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, even though Ansar Beit al-Maqdis claimed responsibility.
Information for this article was contributed by Laura King and Amro Hassan of the Los Angeles Times; by Maggie Michael, Sarah El Deeb, Laura Dean, Maamoun Youssef, Mamdouh Thabit and Khalil Hamra of The Associated Press; and by David D. Kirkpatrick of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/25/2014