Bomb near Egypt intel building wounds four soldiers
A bomb near an army intelligence
building wounded four soldiers Sunday, the third such blast within a week after
the Muslim Brotherhood's designation as a terrorist organisation further
polarised Egypt.
The explosion, which the army called
a "cowardly terrorist" act, comes as the military-installed
authorities plan to hold a referendum on a new constitution next month, the
first step towards democracy since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed
Morsi in July.
Sunday's blast in Sharqiya province
in the Nile Delta destroyed the rear compound wall of the intelligence
building, the army said, adding that four soldiers were wounded.
It was the third such attack in less
than a week.
Another was averted on Sunday when
experts defused a bomb near the front gate of Al-Azhar's medical faculty in New
Damietta city north of Cairo, security officials said.
On Tuesday, a suicide car bomber
killed 15 people at a police building in Mansoura, north of the capital. And on
Thursday, a bomb in Cairo wounded five people on a bus.
The Mansoura attack, one of the
deadliest since Morsi's ouster, triggered widespread outrage.
A day after that attack, which was
claimed by Al-Qaeda-inspired jihadists, the authorities accused the Brotherhood
of perpetrating it and listed the Islamist movement to which Morsi belongs as a
"terrorist organisation".
But the Brotherhood, which prevailed
in all elections since the ouster of strongman Hosni Mubarak in early 2011,
said it is "innocent of any violent incident that has (been) or will be
committed".
Designating the Brotherhood as a
terrorist group is a hardening of the government position in its ongoing
crackdown on Morsi's Islamist supporters.
It means hundreds of thousands of
Brotherhood members now face prison sentences if they hold demonstrations or
are found in possession of the movement's recordings or literature.
The designation also means
Brotherhood leaders currently on trial face possible death sentences if found
guilty.
On Sunday, police in the
Mediterranean city of Alexandria arrested three people, including two minors,
after they searched a printer's and found propaganda material backing the
Brotherhood and opposing the security forces.
The crackdown on Morsi's supporters
since the army ousted him on July 3 has seen more than 1,000 people killed and
thousands of his backers arrested.
But the Brotherhood has still held
demonstrations across Egypt, especially over the past three days, with at least
seven people killed in clashes between Morsi's supporters and opponents.
Universities also saw severe unrest
this week, and on Saturday a 19-year-old student was shot dead at Al-Azhar's
Cairo campus, where pro-Morsi students have staged regular protests.
The students entered the commerce
faculty of the university during an exam and set it alight, before police burst
into the campus and fired tear gas.
A police official said 101 students
were arrested and the fire on the first two floors of the building was brought
under control.
The violence came a day after five
people were killed in clashes across Egypt, as police stamped down hard on
Brotherhood demonstrations.
On Sunday, student Brotherhood
backers torched an exam hall at Al-Azhar University, security officials said,
adding that 27 "rioters" were arrested.
The interim authorities have
decapitated the 85-year-old Brotherhood, imprisoning Morsi and most of the
movement's leadership and putting them on trial for allegedly colluding with
militants.
More than 100 soldiers and policemen
have been killed in the Sinai since Morsi's ouster.
Egypt's first democratically elected
president, Morsi ruled for just one turbulent year before the military
overthrew him following mass protests demanding his resignation.
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