Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt) has claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing which killed three men at the Foreign Ministry. The dead included two officers — Mohamed Abu Serei and Khaled Saafan — and one conscript. Five others were injured. The explosion occurred at 10.45 am on 26 July Street in Bulaq Abul Ela, next to a side entrance to the ministry. The bombing has raised questions over the ability of security forces to protect vital institutions. A statement posted by Ajnad Misr on Twitter on Sunday, following the bombing, boasted of the group's ability to penetrate the defences around the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which it described as a tool used by “foreign enemies” to execute their plots against Egypt. The group added that they were “able to plant a bomb, targeting police officers” and successfully “eliminated them.” Said the group, “Our operations of retaliation and revenge will not stop until all detainees are freed, all tyrants overthrown and Islamic Sharia Law is implemented.” Ajnad Misr, which emerged following the Mohamed Morsi's ouster in July 2013, has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks. Unlike the Sinai-based Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which has expanded its reach beyond the peninsula to attack provincial governorates, Ajnad Misr's operations are limited to Cairo and Giza. While Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis relies on suicide car bombs that kill at random, Ajnad Misr uses smaller remote-controlled explosive devices that target police and army officers. Ajnad Misr, says Maher Farghali, an expert on Islamist groups, is made up of jihadists and members of Hazemoun, supporters of the now detained Islamist presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail. “Ajnad Misr's capability is limited to rudimentary operations. It has members in Cairo and Giza governorates,” says Farghali. The group claimed responsibility for eight attacks between November 2013 and April 2014. In January it issued a statement saying it would target “police officers involved in massacres,” a reference to the bloody dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in August 2013. In April it claimed responsibility for the murder of senior police officer Brigadier Ahmed Zaki, killed when a bomb was detonated in the car he was riding, and for three explosive devices planted in front of Cairo University, which killed Brigadier Tarek Al-Mergawi and severely wounded five others. In June it claimed to be behind a series of explosions near the presidential palace that killed two police officers. Cairo Security Directorate officer Abu Serei, killed on Sunday, was a key witness in former president Morsi's jailbreak case. This fact has led many observers to accuse the Muslim Brotherhood of ultimate responsibility for Sunday's attack. Security expert Khaled Okasha believes such accusations are misplaced. Sunday's attack was random, he says. “Abu Sreia was not the target, though his death should focus attention on the need for a rigorous programme to protect witnesses, especially in national security cases.” The government has repeatedly blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for terrorist attacks, accusations the group denies. On Monday the Brotherhood issued a statement condemning Sunday's bombing and reiterating that it rejects all violence. It accused the security apparatus of planning the blast to lend weight to the anti-terror position President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi is expected to stress during his current visit to New York. The majority of Ajnad Misr's members, says Okasha, come from the younger ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood. “The group, which was founded after 30 June, comprises radical young Brothers trained by Brotherhood leader Osama Yassin,” he claims. The blast, says the Ministry of Interior, was caused by a homemade device. Later the same day, two other bombs were detonated, one in the Tanta governorate and another in Sharqeyya. No injuries were reported. Security expert Hussein Hamouda says the attacks were an attempt to terrorise citizens on the first day of the school year. The bombs have been denounced across the political spectrum. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the attacks would not weaken the Egyptian state “in its fight against extremist groups and the eradication of terrorism from the Egyptian society.” The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) called for “the perpetrators to receive the maximum penalty under the law/” It urged “the Egyptian authorities to quickly arrest those involved in the incidents, refer them to trial, and protect the police and the army.” Prominent activist Nawara Negm used her Twitter account to lambast the record of the current interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, in tackling terrorism. “Under Mohamed Ibrahim the death toll of police officers is now higher than that of the Egyptian army in the 1973 war,” Negm wrote. Since the ouster of Morsi, militant attacks have claimed the lives of more than 500 security personnel.
