A previously unknown jihadist group has claimed responsibility for two attacks against Egyptian security forces. The group has a Facebook page and issues its statements on an al-Qaeda online portal, which is monitored by the American intelligence website SITE. The group is called Ajnad Misr, which is Arabic for Egypt's Soldiers. It claimed the two bombings against a gathering for police personnel on February 7 in Giza. "Our heroic soldiers on Friday reached once again the heart of the criminal apparatuses... to send a message to them that they are not safe from retribution," said a statement purportedly released by Ajnad Misr. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified but it was posted on an al-Qaeda-affiliated website and the group's Facebook page. It said the armed group would continue its attacks on policemen. It called on them to repent and switch sides. "Our attacks on them will continue all the while their crimes continue," the statement said. Earlier on Friday, unknown militants used two homemade bombs to blow up a police vehicle on a bridge in Giza. Six policemen were wounded in the attack. Little is known about Ajnad Misr group which emerged last month, claiming responsibility for several bomb attacks. In its first statement on 31 January, the group claimed responsibility for an attack that took place on the day at a Central Security Forces base near 6th of October City in Giza. The group said it would continue its attacks against the security services under a campaign it dubbed "retribution is life". The emergence of Ajnad Misr comes to further complicate matters, with new militant groups are being formed and ones on-the-ground continue to perpetrate their attacks. Security experts see that such new militant groups, as Ajnad Misr, are nothing but offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood. "The Muslim Brotherhood group hides its terrorist face behind small militant groups, such as Ajnad Misr which claimed responsibility for some attacks recently," said former assistant to interior minister Gen Magdy al-Basiouny. "Also, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group is nothing but another offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood," he said. For his part, retired police officer Ali Abdel-Rahman said all such groups are "hired by Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad [Organization] in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood". "All these small terrorist groups carry illusionary names in order to disperse security efforts," he said. Deadly shootings and bomb attacks targeting the security forces have been on the rise since last July, when the army ousted president Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood following mass protests against his rule. Many of such attacks were claimed by Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group (Champions of Jerusalem), which is likely the largest jihadist group basically operating in Sinai. Reportedly founded and funded by Islamists in Gaza, many experts say it is the latest branch of Al-Qaeda in Egypt, and has received the blessing of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. The group's attacks were confined to Sinai, but have begun to shift into Cairo since the ouster of Morsi. The group is also benefiting from Egyptian militants returning from fronts of jihad, or holy war, elsewhere around the region. After a failed attempt to assassinate Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim in Cairo in September, the group identified the suicide bomber as Walid Badr, a former Egyptian army major who it said had fought in Afghanistan after the US-led invasion in 2001 and later in Syria's civil war. In a separate statement, it said another militant, Saeed el-Shahat, an Egyptian who also fought in Syria, blew himself up when police raided his apartment in January. Further alarm was raised over Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis' capabilities when it downed a military helicopter in Sinai in late January, killing all five crewmembers. Based on a video by the group purporting to show the attack, the fighters used a shoulder-fired missile from the Russian-made Igla series, which is more advanced than weapons systems previously seen among militant groups, the London-based military analysis group Jane's Defense Weekly reported. The military-backed authorities have cracked down hard on Morsi's Islamist supporters since his ouster. Hundreds of them were killed during protests in the weeks after his removal and thousands more were arrested. Many members of the security forces have been killed in bombings and shootings since then.
