Bomb injures 6 in Cairo’s Matariya

Two army conscripts and a mother and child are among the injured in a blast in Cairo.

Six people were injured, including two army conscripts, when a bomb went off in Cairo’s Matariya district late on Sunday, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

The bomb was planted on a tram railway.

Conscript Mansour Sayed, 23, sustained wounds, while conscript Hassan Mohamed, 23, was injured in his right eye.

Four other civilians were also hospitalised, including a 4-year-old girl and her mother.

Meanwhile, explosive experts defused two bombs on Sunday near the entrance to El-Sherouk suburb on the Cairo-Ismailia road, and two other bombs in Abbasiya near downtown’s Ramses Square.

Attacks on police and army personnel and sites have been frequent nationwide since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in summer 2013. However, civilians too have been caught up in the violence.

Dozens of small bombs have been planted, allegedly by Islamist militants, targeting security locations and guards at civilian institutions. They have also hit economic and industrial installations such as electricity pylons and mobile phone stores.

The army had been battling a militant Islamist insurgency in Sinai for a decade. Militant attacks have intensified in the restive peninsula over the past eighteen months, killing hundreds of security personnel.

The government has launched an “anti-terrorism” campaign, arresting hundreds and announcing the death of hundreds of suspected militants. It has also designated certain groups as “terrorist,” including Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

Source: Ahram online