Militant group claims attack on Egypt prosecutor

By Mohamed Mahmoud

CAIRO (AA) – An Egyptian militant group has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s car-bomb attack that targeted Egypt’s deputy prosecutor-general.

The bombing struck in an eastern Cairo suburb shortly after deputy prosecutor-general Zakaria Abdel-Aziz’s convoy drove by. The official and his entourage were unhurt in the attack, but a passerby was injured.

In a Friday statement, the Hasm group, or “Decisiveness” in Arabic, said the attack was in revenge from judges for sentencing thousands of innocent defendants to death.

The group claimed that a number of Abdel-Aziz’s bodyguards were injured in the bombing.

Egyptian authorities have yet to comment on the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.

The group had previously claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in recent months, the latest of which was in August when gunmen opened fire on former mufti Ali Gomaa, who survived the attack unhurt.

In June, Egypt’s prosecutor-general Hesham Barakat was killed in a deadly car bombing in eastern Cairo.

Egypt has been roiled by turmoil since the military deposed Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president, in a 2013 military coup.