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Egypt’s Top Prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, Is Killed by Roadside Bomb | Egypt’s Top Prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, Is Killed by Roadside Bomb |
(about 4 hours later) | |
CAIRO — A powerful roadside bomb killed Egypt’s top prosecutor as he drove to work Monday morning, broadening the violent insurgency that militants have been waging against the government for two years. | |
The prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, was the most senior civilian official to be killed in Egypt since the insurgency began in the fall of 2013, after the military ousted the country’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. | |
The explosion hit Mr. Barakat’s small convoy around 10:30 a.m. Monday as it left the Heliopolis neighborhood near Cairo International Airport. The blast set several cars on fire and shattered windows along the street, injuring at least eight other people. Mr. Barakat sustained a lacerated liver and was rushed to a hospital, where he died from internal bleeding, according to the health ministry. | |
The daylight assassination of one of his top officials was a blow to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who rose to power on a promise to restore stability after years of political tumult. His government has justified a broad crackdown against Islamists and other opponents as necessary to eradicate the threat from militants. | |
This month, militants carried out separate attacks near the Pyramids at Giza and at the Karnak temple in Luxor, two of Egypt’s most popular tourist destinations, further denting the government’s efforts to project order. | |
In a statement on Monday, Mr. Sisi praised Mr. Barakat as a “model of judicial integrity” who “exemplified patriotism and diligence.” The government said it was canceling celebrations that had been planned for Tuesday to commemorate the start of the mass protests that preceded Mr. Morsi’s ouster. | |
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing. As one of the nation’s most prominent judicial officials, Mr. Barakat was a focal point for militant groups vowing retaliation for the death sentences handed down against senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, including Mr. Morsi, and for the executions of imprisoned militants. | |
Many of Mr. Barakat’s prosecutions had also been criticized by human rights advocates, who said the cases were built on flimsy evidence and politically motivated charges. | |
After 18 months of attacks, focused mainly on the security services, that killed hundreds of soldiers and police officers, the threats against the judiciary reflected a broadening of targets by the militants to include civilian officials. | |
The government has also had to contend with a proliferation of new militant groups that emerged last year, including Revolutionary Punishment. That group recently posted online a list of violent attacks it claimed to have conducted over the past year, killing more than 157 members of the military. | |
The deadliest recent attack on the judiciary was carried out in May by a group operating in the Sinai Peninsula that is affiliated with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The Egyptian group, which calls itself the Sinai Province, posted a video early on Monday that appears to show the attack. In it, fighters are seen spraying a minibus with machine-gun fire, killing several judges and others. | |
The three-minute video includes brief images of several other prominent judges, including one who sentenced Mr. Morsi to death. | |
Gen. Osama Bedeir, chief of security in Cairo, said Monday that the explosive device that killed Mr. Barakat had been planted in a parked car and detonated by remote control. In September 2013, Mohamed Ibrahim, who was interior minister at the time, survived a bombing attack on his convoy in the capital. | |
After the explosion on Monday, Egyptian officials initially said that Mr. Barakat’s wounds were not life-threatening, and that they included lacerations to his face and a dislocated shoulder. | |
Ahmed Shazly, who witnessed the bombing, said Mr. Barakat left for work every morning in a two-vehicle convoy that apparently included an armored vehicle. Residents in the area, including the doorman in Mr. Shazly’s building, were hurt by flying glass from the explosion, he said. |