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5 Egyptian military police killed as gunmen attack Cairo checkpoint Six Egyptian military police killed as gunmen attack Cairo checkpoint
(about 14 hours later)
Egypt's state news agency said gunmen have attacked a checkpoint operated by military police in a suburb north of Cairo, killing five of them. Gunmen stormed an Egyptian army checkpoint outside Cairo early on Saturday morning and killed six soldiers, including some still in their beds, officials said, in what amounted to an escalation by militants on military targets near the capital.
Separately, the country's most active militant group said that one of its founding leaders was killed when a bomb he was carrying was set off by a car accident. Just days earlier, masked men opened fire on a busload of military police inside city limits, another rare attack on soldiers this far from the restive Sinai Peninsula, where the army is fighting a counter-insurgency campaign.
Major General Mahmoud Yousri, the chief of security of Qalubiya province, told MENA that the attackers stormed the checkpoint in Shubra al-Kheima early on Saturday. Provincial security chief Major General Mahmoud Yousri told state news agency MENA that the gunmen also planted explosive devices after Saturday's attack in Shubra al-Kheima, but bomb disposal experts managed to diffuse two and detonate another in a controlled explosion.
Yousri said explosive disposal experts managed to defuse two bombs left behind by the attackers, but the experts detonated a third bomb which they were unable to defuse. The military blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the attack, calling the group "terrorists" and saying they had planted the additional bombs to target rescue workers rushing to the scene.
An armed forces spokesman, Colonel Ahmed Mohammed Ali, said armed members of the Muslim Brotherhood "terrorist group" attacked the soldiers after they finished their dawn prayers. Armed forces spokesman Colonel Ahmed Mohammed Ali said the soldiers, of a military police unit, were attacked just after morning prayers. The health ministry confirmed the death toll.
"These cowardly operations will only increase our determination to continue the war against terrorism," he said. "These cowardly operations will only increase our determination to continue the war against terrorism," Ali said in comments on his official Facebook page.
Egyptian authorities say the Brotherhood has orchestrated a series of bomb attacks on police and other targets since the overthrow of the president Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood member. Amr Darrag, former head of the foreign relations committee for the Brotherhood's political party, condemned the attack on his Twitter account and denied responsibility.
They have produced little evidence open to public scrutiny to bolster these claims, and most have been claimed by a Sinai-based al-Qaida-inspired group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis or Champions of Jerusalem. The Brotherhood denies the attacks. "How can the (Brotherhood) be accused (a) few minutes after the attack with no evidence or investigation?", he wrote.
In a statement posted on militant websites early on Saturday, Ansar said one of its founding leaders, Tawfiq Mohammed Freij, was killed on Tuesday when an accident set off a "heat bomb" he was transporting in his car. It did not say where the accident took place. Egyptian authorities say the Brotherhood has orchestrated a series of bomb attacks on police and other targets following the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Islamist group. This week, prosecutors referred about a dozen Brotherhood members to trial for allegedly forming an armed unit that has carried out attacks in the Nile Delta.
It said Freij, also known Abu Abdullah, was one of the founders of the group, who masterminded the group's tactic of blowing up pipelines to stop Egyptian gas supplies to Israel. They have produced little evidence open to public scrutiny to bolster these claims, however, and most attacks have been claimed by the country's most active militant group, an al-Qaida-inspired organisation based in the Sinai called Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Champions of Jerusalem. The Brotherhood denies being involved in the attacks.
It called him the "field commander" of an August 2011 cross-border attack in southern Israel that targeted a bus and other vehicles near the resort city of Eilat, killing eight people. Authorities in recent days have also said they arrested a number of individuals they accuse of planning attacks on the police, including a group of 12 in the Delta governorate of Menoufia and others in northern Sinai.
The statement said Freij moved from the Sinai to elsewhere in Egypt in early 2013 to supervise the group's operations, including a failed suicide car bomb attack on the interior minister, Mahmoud Ibrahim, in Cairo in September 2013. Following Saturday's attack, the National Defense Council, headed by the president and attended by military chief and other security officials, held a meeting in which members discussed security arrangements in advance of the upcoming presidential elections. They stressed the need for an atmosphere of "security and peace" to ensure a high turnout.
The statement could not be independently authenticated, but militant groups regularly use the websites to make announcements. Meanwhile, Giza's criminal court sentenced Zohair Garana, the Mubarak-era tourism minister, to five years in jail on corruption charges. He still faces other corruption charges in a pending case.