5 men arrested for Friday’s IED attack in Egypt’s Gesr Al Suez

Egypt’s interior ministry announced Sunday that it arrested five men suspected of carrying out an improvised explosive device (IED) attack on Gesr Al Suez road in Cairo hours after the explosion killed one civilian on Friday.

According to a statement on the ministry’s official Facebook page, the men claimed responsibility for the IED attack, saying that they were targeting security forces.

The explosion, which killed a passerby and injured one other person in Cairo’s Ain Shams district, is thought to have been intended for a passing security convoy.

The statement added that the attackers were plotting “other attacks targeting army and police personnel.”

Attacks against security forces have become common in recent years but are mostly concentrated in North Sinai, where Egypt’s army and police are battling an entrenched Islamist insurgency.

Last week, an army brigadier general was shot dead in front of his house in Obour City, on the outskirts of Cairo. He had previously been deployed in North Sinai.

Source: Ahram Online