Egypt militant group claims prosecutor bombing

An Egyptian militant group said on Friday that it tried to assassinate the deputy prosecutor general with a car bomb, a day after the blast in a Cairo suburb.

Police had said the Thursday night bombing had occurred as the official's convoy drove past the rigged car wounded a passerby. The prosecutor, Zakareya Azmi, was unharmed.

The Hasm group, which has claimed attacks in Cairo in recent months, said it was was behind the bombing in a statement circulated on social media.

The recently emerged group published purported pictures of the moment the bomb exploded, and threatened further attacks against "the oppresive judiciary."

The group, about which little is known, had previously claimed responsibility for killing a policeman and for the attempted assassination of a pro-government Muslim cleric.

In 2015, a car bombing killed prosecutor general Hisham Barakat. No group has claimed responsibility for that attack.

Police later said they arrested the perpetrators of the attack, charging that they were members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Hundreds of soldiers and policemen have also died in jihadist attacks since the military overthrew Morsi in 2013 and unleashed a deadly crackdown on his supporters.

Source: AFP