Six police officers killed in Cairo bombing

Six policemen were killed Friday in a bomb attack at their checkpoint in Cairo, the latest attack in Egypt on security forces and officials, the Interior Ministry said.

The explosion took place in the Talibiya district, in the west of the Egyptian capital, just after the weekly Muslim prayer on Friday, when the streets of Cairo are relatively empty.

On the spot, the bloodied bodies of several policemen were lying near police vehicles, according to an AFP photographer.

Police cordoned off the area with a yellow cord and searched for any other explosives.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the explosion took place near a checkpoint, killing two officers, a lower-ranking policeman and three conscripts. Three other conscripts were wounded.

A little known group, Hasm, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released on social networks. The group has claimed several attacks in recent months, including the murder of a police officer.

Extremist groups have carried out numerous attacks against Egyptian police and soldiers since the army’s overthrow in 2013 of elected Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi and the ensuing crackdown on his supporters.

Most attacks took place in the Sinai Peninsula, where the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State jihadist group rages. But others have also occured in the Egyptian capital.

In early November, an Egyptian judge arbitrating one of Mohamed Morsi’s trials, escaped the explosion of a car bomb in Cairo. The attack came a few days after the explosion of a bomb targeting a police convoy in Cairo, in which a passer-by died.

In September, an Egyptian deputy attorney general escaped unhurt while a passer-by was injured after a car bomb exploded in the suburbs of Cairo.

Most of the attacks of recent months in Cairo have been claimed by Hasm and Lawaa al-Thawra.

Police say that these groups are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood which has been banned for months and is considered a “terrorist” movement by the authorities.