An armed Al-Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility for the assassination of a high-ranking Homeland Security officer earlier this week and threatened to carry out similar attacks in the future. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which has taken credit for an assassination attempt on Minister of the Interior Mohamed Ibrahim and a number of other attacks, released a statement on Tuesday saying it had carried out the attack that killed Mohamed Mabrouk on Sunday. The group said it carried out the assassination of what it called "one of the prominent tyrants of State Security" in response to police's arrest of "free women." The statement also warned that "this blessed operation comes within a series of operations" that it had dubbed "freeing the female prisoners from the hands of the tyrants." The Muslim Brotherhood condemned the killing of Mabrouk on Tuesday and also condemned attempts by the media to hold them responsible for the attack. The Brotherhood "emphasised" its denouncing of violence and terrorism and reiterated its denial of responsibility for a number of attacks including attacks on churches, civilians around the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in, and the residence of journalist Hassanein Heikal. Mabrouk was killed near his Nasr City residence on Sunday and his funeral the following day was attended by interim Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi, Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim, and other high-ranking security officials. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis said it was responsible for the suicide bombing that attempted to take the life of Ibrahim in October and released a video of them carrying out the attack. The Sinai-based group also claimed responsibility for an attack on the military intelligence building in Ismailia that injured six, claiming that they carried it out "to cleanse Egypt of crime and military foreign agents." The group also claimed responsibility for an explosion at an empty government building in El-Tor, North Sinai and released a video this week showing them carrying out the attack. The Ministry of Interior said on Wednesday that investigations into the attack on Mabrouk were still being carried out.
