Saturday, January 25, 2014

Twenty Dead, More Than 100 Wounded in Cairo Attacks

How's that "Arab Spring" working out for everyone?

Aftermath outside Cairo security directorate
CAIRO — Twenty people died and more than 100 were wounded as blasts and protests rocked Cairo on Friday, the eve of the third anniversary of the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Shortly after sunrise, a truck bomb exploded as it tried to get into police headquarters in the Egyptian capital, killing five and wounding 76, government officials said.

"Traitors and dogs," onlookers yelled in an apparent reference to the assailants, according to Reuters.

Several police officers sat on the sidewalk, weeping as ambulances rushed in, Reuters reported. A crowd of distraught-looking residents looked on as A body lay on the ground, covered by a sheet.

State television quoted witnesses as saying that gunmen opened fire on buildings after the blast. The police headquarters building and nearby 19th-century Museum of Islamic Art, which was recently renovated in a multimillion-dollar project, were badly damaged ...

The militant group Ansar Beit al Maqdis released a statement claiming responsibility for the near-simultaneous bombings, which came a day before the third anniversary of the uprising that toppled Mubarak. (Continue Reading.)

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